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BABA AU RHUM - The Non-Cake Cake Show-Stopper Dessert For Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year's Classics
Originally published December 15, 2005 (On Nov. 17, 2009, H:3,616 +C:1)..
Republished November 22, 2008 (On Nov. 17, 2009, H:858..
Reissued November 17, 2009 (To Date Totals: H:4,474 +C:1)
BABA AU RHUM –
The Non-Cake
Show-Stopper
Dessert For
Thanksgiving,
Christmas &
New Year's
Classics
On January 1, 1988, I gave a housewarming. I made a Baba Au Rhum. I placed it on a heavy glass cake dish with an equally heavy top piece. I removed the top quickly with everyone standing around the table. Each guest got the smell at the same moment. Serious swooning occurred. I turned away to serve ice cream or something. When I looked again, the Baba was gone – I got not one piece. So beware.
First, Baba Au Rhum is not a cake technically. It is really a sweet bread made with yeast. But the secret is the Rum Syrup, poured over the Baba after baking. There is also an Apricot Glaze, which I have made only once – it is totally unnecessary. Trust me!
You will need a 10-by-4 inch tube pan and 1 to 1.5 cups of light rum. Always replace the glass top after serving to preserve that knock-em-out "hit" you get from removing the cake dish top. I think the warm Bacardi releases aromas more than if it came straight from the bottle.
This is a real Show-Stopper! If you must serve ice cream, make it plain vanilla. Baba is THE STAR of the show! If you want to replace that tired old traditional "Fruitcake" this year, which is mostly fruit and very little cake, give Baba Au Rhum a try. If you also make my Homemade Holiday Eggnog, also published in November for Thanksgiving, your family and friends may be unable to leave the Holiday table under their own volition. Ignore "child abuse laws"! Once a year won't hurt.
If you make my Pumpkin Pies With A Secret for Thanksgiving, you can hold off on the Baba until Christmas and save your diners from utter inebriation.
INGREDIENTS
Baba
.75-C water (105º – 110º F.)
2 pkg fresh yeast (1 oz) or 2 dry yeast packets
.25- C sugar
1t salt
6 eggs
3.75-C Hecker’s flour, sifted
.75-C butter, softened
.5-C citron, finely chopped or grated orange peel
.25-C currants or seedless raisins
Rum Syrup
2.5-C sugar
1 orange, thinly sliced crosswise
1 lemon, thinly sliced crosswise
2C water
1>1.5C light rum
Apricot Glaze (optional)
1C apricot preserves
2t lemon juice
PROCEDURE
Baba
1. Grease a 10-by-4 inch tube pan*
2. Dissolve yeast, sugar, salt, eggs & 2.25-Cups flour in mixer
3. At medium speed, beat until smooth, scraping down sides with rubber spatula
4. Add butter to blend
5. At low speed, beat in rest of flour until smooth
6. Stir in citron or currants, mixing well (batter will be thick)
7. Turn batter into prepared* tube pan, spreading evenly
8. Cover with towel and let rise until dough .5-inch from top, about 70 minutes
9. Bake in PHO 400º F.; don’t jar oven or baba may fall
10. Bake 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean
Syrup
11. In saucepan combine sugar and water; boil, uncovered, for ten minutes
12. Reduce heat and add fruit; simmer another ten minutes
13. Remove from heat and add rum
Glaze
14. Over low heat, melt preserves; stir in lemon juice
15. Strain glaze; refrigerate
Assembly
16. With butter knife, loosen baba from pan
17. Arrange boiled fruit around top of baba
18. In larger round pizza pan or casserole dish with lip place tube pan; pour hot syrup over baba still inside tube pan
19. Continue re-pouring unabsorbed syrup over baba until totally absorbed
20. Place baba on cake dish; brush with glaze (completely optional)
21. Cover baba, when not serving, in airtight 2-piece cake dish
Codes:
PHO: preheated oven
C: cup
t: teaspoon
T: Tablespoon
*Prepare tube pan by buttering inside of pan and detachable bottom. Put pan together and dust generously with flour. Shake out excess flour. I always use Heckers All Purpose Flour. Use either butter or Crisco to butter the tube pan; I N-E-V-E-R use margarine for anything!
WARNING! If you serve the Baba Au Rhum and Homemade Holiday Eggnog together, both generously saturated with liquor, your guests may be unable to go home without a taxi. Babas are still great on Day 2, but mine never make it that far.
Source: McCall’s Cooking School #3, pgs 48-49
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