Rum babas lie on a confectionery grill for cooling. Rum babas lie on a confectionery grill for cooling. Flowers are visible in the foreground.

Yeast baking+dessert

Rum baba from a 1976 book

Prep Time: 2 hrs 10 min / Cook Time: 50 min / Total Time: 3 hrs

Baba au rhum (also known as rum baba) is a lovely yeast-risen cake studded with dried fruit and soaked in hot rum syrup. Once the darling of French cuisine, it fell out of favor, but it is so good to see it back and as popular as ever.

This recipe features the delicate flavor of citrus with just a hint of orange zest. Likewise, a small amount of vanilla has been added to the soaking syrup to cut down on the rum’s boldness. The result is a rum baba that's full of complex layers of flavor while still holding to the traditional French recipe.

Author and photographs: Olga

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I bought myself a book "On tasty and healthy food" in 1976. And of course, I started experimenting. These books are special. Of course, they do not contain family secrets and recipes, but they are like a piece of the past that you can feel in reality! This recipe definitely made me happy! Maybe it will appear in your "family recipe book" - it tastes really great! Do not be greedy for impregnation - syrup for impregnation! And take your favorite rum!

Rum baba from a 1976 book

Yield: 12 buns

Ingredients

Ingredients for buns

270 gr flour
100 ml milk
1 egg + 1 yolk
60 gr sugar
80 gr butter
a pinch of salt
50 gr raisins (optional)
orange zest (optional)
13 gr fresh yeast
vanilla

For syrup:

0.5 cup sugar
1.5 cups of water
vanilla
4 tbsp Rum

Glaze:

2 tbsp lemon/orange juice
6 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Dilute the yeast in milk, add most of the flour (180 out of 270 gr), and knead a tight dough. Roll it into a ball, make 2 cuts crosswise, and lower the dough into a container of water. Put in a warm (30 * C) place. At first, the dough will sink, and after a while, it will float. (minutes 20-30) We take out the dough from the water with a slotted spoon and add the remaining flour, salt, sugar, and beaten eggs until smooth. Knead the dough (7 minutes). Then add the soft butter, and knead the dough again until smooth (another 3 minutes). We put the dough in a warm place for another 50 minutes - until it doubles in size. When the dough has doubled in size you can add candied fruits. To do this, we spread the dough that has come up on an oiled table into a rectangular layer (I did it just with my hands). Pour candied fruit/raisins on this rectangle and roll it up. If the dough turned out soft (this depends on the size of the eggs and the flour that you used), help yourself with a spatula. Then, divide the dough into balls. Put the balls in forms, filling them 1/3. Leave in a warm place for about 40 minutes - until the dough rises to 3/4 of the height of the form. Bake at 180 gr for about 45 minutes. Remove the finished baba from the oven, release it from the mold, and let it cool on a wire rack so that the bottom does not fog up. Then pierce with a skewer in many places and dip each "baba" in syrup for impregnation. You can leave "baba" in syrup even for 10-20 minutes.