A rum baba, also known as a baba au rhum, is a little yeast cake soaked in rum-based syrup that is usually filled with pastry cream or whipped cream. It can occasionally be prepared in bigger forms like those used for Bundt cakes, but it is most frequently made in individual servings, which are roughly a 5 cm tall, slightly tapered cylinder. The original baba was a tall, cylindrical yeast cake, like the baba of babka. The modern baba au rhum (rum baba), which contains dried fruit and is soaked in rum, was created in Paris, France, around 1835. Nowadays, the word "baba" nearly exclusively refers to the rum baba in France and practically everywhere else outside of eastern Europe. Naples is another favourite location for the baba, and the dish is known there as babà or babbà.
Here's how you can make Baba au Rhum at home-
Ingredients
1. 1/3 cup dried currants
2. 1 tablespoon of dark rum
3. 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
4. 1/2 cup milk
5. 1 packet of dry yeast
6. 2 tbsp sugar
7. 2 extra-large eggs
8. 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
9. 1/2 tsp kosher salt
10. Rum Syrup
11. 3/4 cup apricot preserves
12. 1 tbsp water
13. Whipped Cream
Baba au rhum/Shutterstock
1. In a small bowl, mix the rum and currants; set aside. Brush a 5-cup tube pan or kugelhopf mould with melted butter. Make sure to cover the pan's whole surface. Pour the milk into the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment after heating it to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the sugar and yeast, then let the mixture rest for five minutes.
2. Add the eggs first, then the flour, salt, and last 4 tablespoons of butter while running the mixer on low speed. Beat for five minutes at a medium-high tempo. To roll the dough into a ball, scrape the bowl and beater clean. It'll be really supple. It will take roughly an hour for the bowl to double in size if you cover it with a damp towel.
3. Drain the currants, mix them with a spatula into the dough, and then spoon them into the prepared pan. When the dough has risen to the top of the pan, which should take 50 mins to 1 hour, smooth the top and cover the pan with a moist towel.
4. Make the Rum Syrup and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F in the interim.
5. Insert a toothpick into the cake and it should come out clean after about 30 minutes of baking. After 10 minutes you should tap the cake out of the pan and onto a baking rack placed over a sheet pan. Pour the rum syrup on the cake and allow it to absorb the flavours. Use all of the syrup since it will miraculously be absorbed into the cake.
6. Heat the apricot preserves with a tablespoon of water until runny. Sieve the mixture and pour it onto the cake.
7. Serve with whipped cream.
