Recipe:
Baba Au Rum
Ingredients for 12 babà:
FOR THE DOUGH
½ cup + 1 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup flour
1.7 oz. milk, lukewarm
¼ oz. dry yeast
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp sugar
FOR THE SYRUP
2 ½ cups water
2 ½ cups sugar
Dark Rum to taste
TO MAKE THE BABÀ LOOK SHINY
3 tbsp apricot jam
1 ½ tbsp water
Start by preparing the syrup. Put the water and sugar in a pot and heat on a medium
fire. Let the sugar melt and boil the syrup for a couple of minutes. Then put the fire off
and add the Dark Rum. You can add as much as you like (this also depends on how
“tasty” your rum is). Let it cool.
Dissolve the dry yeast in a bowl with the lukewarm milk and 2 tsp of sugar. Set aside to
activate until the froth forms.
Put the flour, beaten eggs and yeast mixture in a mixer with a dough hook (1 –
2). Knead well on low speed until smooth. In the meantime, using a fork, mix the soft
butter and the remaining sugar together until creamy (3). Increase the speed of the
mixer and add this cream to the dough little by little while kneading (4). When it is well
incorporated, put the soft dough into a greased bowl (5), cover it with cling wrap and set
it aside to rise for 1 and a half hour or until it doubles in volume (6).
Then half fill your babà tins (make sure you grease them and dust them with a little flour
so the babà won’t stick) and let it rise for another 20 minutes. NOTE: make sure you
only half fill them, I overdid the first batch and the shape did not come out “perfect”.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180º C – 350º F for 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the
size of your tins). When ready, remove from the tins and put them in the cold syrup for
a few minutes. When they have soaked up enough liquid, take them out one by one
and gently squeeze them to get rid of the excess syrup. If your babàhave come out
right, they will not crumble. Set them aside.
Melt the apricot jam together with the water in the microwave.
Mix well and brush each babà with this mixture to make them shiny.
You can serve them as is, or decorate with some whipped cream and strawberries (or
any other fruits that you like). You can also add more rum (or more of the rum syrup)
just before serving them, if you like a stronger rum flavor.
NOTE: if you want to serve this to children, you can substitute the rum with some lemon
zest.