Baba

The baba is a pastry finished by soaking it with syrup after baking. A leavened dough rich in eggs and butter is made to absorb syrup or liquor after baking, moistening it all the way to the center. Representative examples are the French baba au rhum and the Neapolitan mushroom shape, in which a round top swells above a narrow body. Its distinctive texture comes from two steps: baking a dough full of air bubbles, and letting it absorb plenty of liquid.

An airy leavened dough that absorbs syrup

The ingredients include flour, yeast, eggs, fat and a small amount of sugar. Alain Ducasse’s recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method of preparation) uses, among other ingredients, 500 grams of eggs, 140 grams of butter, 17 grams of yeast and 17 grams of honey for 400 grams of flour. The dough is worked while the eggs are added little by little, until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl and becomes smooth and elastic. Although the dough is high in moisture and fat, it is worked into an airy dough that can hold its shape even when it absorbs liquid after baking.

The dough is placed in molds and left to rise, and once it has swelled, it is baked. The part that rises slightly above the cylindrical mold becomes the round top. Baking sets the shape of the airy dough, which is then removed from the mold and cooled. After this, the baked dough is soaked with sugar syrup.

Syrup to soak the dough, and rum poured on afterward

The baba is soaked in warm syrup and turned so that the liquid reaches every part. Unlike a finish in which icing is simply brushed on the surface, this lets sweetness and aroma penetrate the inside of the dough as well. Once it has soaked thoroughly, it is lifted onto a rack and the excess liquid is drained off.

In Ducasse’s method, a syrup is made from water, sugar, vanilla, and orange and lemon peel, and the cooled dough is soaked in the liquid while it is warm but not too hot. An apricot nappage gives it shine, rum is poured over it after it is cut, and vanilla-flavored whipped cream is served on the side. Some methods mix the rum into the sugar syrup from the start, while others, like this one, pour it on afterward.

Scaturchio in Naples describes a method in which the babas are rested after baking and then soaked with liquid in two stages. This is the shop’s way of keeping them from being either too dry or overly saturated. Not only the amount of syrup but also the condition of the baked dough and the step of letting it settle after soaking affect the result.

The legend of a king who moistened a dry cake with liquor

There is a legend that the former King of Poland, Stanisław Leszczyński, moistened a dry kougelhopf with liquor and named it after Ali Baba from “The Thousand and One Nights,” a book he loved. Stohrer in Paris also relates a history connecting the pastry to the king and the court pastry cook Nicolas Stohrer, but the liquor differs from story to story, being Tokaji, Malaga or rum, and some say rum was used only later. The Polish word baba is used both for an older woman and for a cake, and besides the theory that the name comes from Ali Baba, there is also a theory that it derives from this Polish word.

The history of this pastry also involves ties between the Polish royal family and the French court. The king’s daughter, Marie Leszczyńska, married Louis XV in 1725. According to the City of Paris’s historical guide, Nicolas Stohrer, who served Stanisław, followed Marie to Versailles and opened a shop on Rue Montorgueil in 1730. However, it is uncertain whether the baba of the time when Stohrer opened his shop in Paris was, as it is today, soaked with rum syrup after baking.

The name and method of the baba in old records

In a private letter dated September 24, 1767, quoted in the French historical dictionary “Trésor de la langue française,” Diderot writes to Sophie Volland that babas are delivered to him from Champigny every day. Although the name of the pastry survives, how it was soaked is not known.

The “Polish baba” in Carême’s 1815 “Le Pâtissier royal parisien” is made by mixing Madeira, raisins and citron into the dough and baking it, with no rum syrup after baking. In this book, Carême names King Stanisław as the creator of the baba. Recipe No. 565 by the Italian cookbook author Artusi likewise mixed liquor into the dough and served the baba dusted with powdered sugar after baking.

The earliest Italian attestation cited by the culinary-language dictionary VoSLIG is babà alla polacca, “Polish-style baba,” in Vincenzo Agnoletti’s “Manual of Refined Modern Cookery and Pastry,” published in 1834. The word is said to have entered Italian from Polish by way of French, and the form babà, stressed on the final syllable, also points to this route. Giovanni Vialardi’s 1854 cookbook describes today’s shape and a version finished with icing. The name appears in records in the 18th century, the method of mixing liquor into the dough in the early 19th century, and a form close to today’s in later records. Even where the name baba is old, the pastry was not necessarily made with the present method of soaking it with liquid after baking.

From the Neapolitan mushroom shape to rings and volcanoes

According to the Campania Region’s guide to traditional foods, the baba was brought to Naples by French-influenced cooks working in noble households, and its softness and mushroom shape became established there. Locally, these cooks are called monsù, from the French monsieur. Some versions use lard as well as butter among the basic ingredients, and the finish also varies, including lemon-scented sugar syrup, rum and cream.

There are not only small versions but also large ones. Scaturchio makes ring-shaped cakes to be cut into portions and one modeled on Mount Vesuvius. The shop’s volcano shape was created as an homage to the dining table of the 1994 G7. The shape of the volcano that symbolizes Naples has thus also been incorporated into celebration cakes.

The savarin, a ring-shaped leavened dough that is soaked, is a close relative. Whereas Neapolitan babas are small mushroom shapes soaked one by one, a ring-shaped cake can be served as a single cake cut into portions. However, ring-shaped babas are also made, so the name cannot be determined by shape alone. There are also differences in the dough proportions, the soaking liquid, and the use of liquor and cream. The Neapolitan compliment “you’re like a baba” carries the image of a soft, well-loved pastry.

Glossary