Marzipan Bakery, Jerusalem

After you finish your shopping at the Machane Yehuda Market, let your nose guide you to this wonderful place that smells of chocolate, cinnamon and freshly baked dough.

Marzipan Bakery has a cult like following, for a very good reason. Yes, they make bread, hallah, burekas, cookies and pastry.

All of it is delicious and fresh.

Inside, the intoxicating aroma weakens even the strongest of will powers.

I have tasted my share of rugelach, some pretty decent and some atrocious, and the rugelach at Marzipan is so superior to any other rugelach I have ever tried. It is soft, gooey, perfectly flavored with either chocolate or cinnamon, not too sweet and when warm, it just melts in your mouth. It is perfection.

These little ones are just waiting to go into the oven.

The rugelach, and other pastries, are baked on these old, beat up baking trays that look like they have been around forever, and probably have. They add to the character of the place and the flavor of the goods.

Something happens to me while at Marzipan. From the outside I seem like a calm, smiling and polite woman but inside there is a raging lunatic, yelling at people to get out of my way of getting more rugalech!!! Once I have the tongs in my hands, and are scooping up the warm and gooey treats, I can't help myself.

I usually fill 6 large containers and spend the entire walk back to the hotel agonizing that I should have gotten more. Right now, there are still 3 containers in my freezer from the last trip. I ration those babies like Elaine rationed her Today Sponge.

If you are lucky, you will get them right out of the oven, which happens a few times a day.

The Master and I.

Marzipan Bakery

44 Agrippas Street

Jerusalem

Closed on Shabbat

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