Babà al Rum

A very wet yeasted sponge, soaked cool in warm syrup until it stops taking any more.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 250 g strong white flour
• 4 eggs
• 80 g butter, soft
• 20 g caster sugar
• 10 g fresh yeast
• 5 g salt
• 500 ml water, for the syrup
• 350 g caster sugar, for the syrup
• the peel of 1 lemon, for the syrup
• 200 ml dark rum

Method

1. Beat the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and eggs in a mixer for a full 10 minutes. THE BATTER IS NEARLY POURABLE and should fall from the beater in a sheet — this is not a dough you can handle, and a stiff one gives a cake that will not drink.
2. Beat in the soft butter a piece at a time until it is glossy.
3. Prove 1 hour, then spoon into buttered dariole moulds one third full and prove again until the batter reaches the rim.
4. Bake at 190C for 20 minutes until dark gold and hollow sounding.
5. TURN THEM OUT AND LEAVE THEM UNTIL COMPLETELY COOL, several hours, uncovered. A dry, cool, slightly stale crumb is what absorbs; warm from the oven they go to paste in the syrup.
6. Boil the water, sugar and lemon peel, take it off, and let it drop to about 60C. Stir in the rum off the heat so the alcohol stays.
7. SUBMERGE THE COOL BABAS IN THE WARM SYRUP and hold them under with a plate for 15 minutes, turning once. They should roughly double in weight and yield like a sponge when pressed — if the middle is still dry, they go back in.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes