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Classic Rum Baba
Incredibly delicious dessert, classic rum baba, is not easy to prepare and requires a lot of free time. But the result is worth it – the tender yeast dough has a moist structure, soaked in rum or cognac, and the top of the product is covered with a traditional white cap of sugar icing.
There are some difficulties in preparing the classic rum baba that need to be considered. The liquid, loose dough should not be overloaded with flour and, most importantly, it should be kneaded for a long time until the dough becomes smooth and does not stick to the hands (if there is a food processor in the house, the task is immediately simplified). The second difficulty is preparing the icing. When it hardens, its surface should become glossy and absolutely smooth, without a single sugar crystal. For this, it is necessary to cook the icing correctly, following the technology described below.
Preparation time: 12 hours.
Caloric value: 281 kcal per 100 grams of the dish.
Ingredients
Show ingredients
Dough starter:
- flour, high-grade – 110 g;
- purified water – 75 g;
- instant yeast – 3 g.
Dough:
- flour, high-grade – 100 g;
- butter, 82% fat – 52 g;
- white sugar – 50 g;
- small egg – 1 pc. (40 g);
- fine salt – a pinch;
- raisins – 25 g;
- the risen dough starter.
Soaking:
- white sugar – 100 g;
- purified water – 100 ml,
- flavoring – 25 ml of rum.
Icing:
- white sugar – 250 g;
- purified water – 85 g;
- lemon juice – 1 tsp.
Preparation
- Prepare the ingredients for the dough starter. It is better to use dry, quality yeast. The temperature of the water used should be 35-38 degrees.
- Gather the products for the dough. The butter should sit at room temperature for at least half an hour to become soft. The amount of ingredients is calculated for butter with 82% fat content, and to avoid recalculating the amount of water and other components, it is better to stick to the specified percentage.
- Prepare the soaking mixture. As a flavoring, you can use not only rum but also cognac or dessert wine.
- Measure the necessary amount of ingredients for the icing. If you have a kitchen thermometer, it will be very useful here, but you can do without it.
- To prepare the dough starter, mix the flour with the yeast.
- Add the water.
- Combine everything without kneading the mixture too much. The main goal is to achieve uniformity so that no dry, unmoistened flour remains.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in an unventilated spot (on a shelf in the cupboard, for example) for fermentation for 2.5-3 hours.
- The end of fermentation can be determined visually – when the dough becomes bubbly and swollen, and the center begins to collapse inward as soon as you touch it, the process is complete.
- Make a well in the center of the dough starter and place the beaten egg, salt, and sugar into it.
- Add the flour – it should be fully incorporated into the dough, after which knead it for about 3-4 minutes.
- Next, gradually knead in the soft butter, ensuring it is fully absorbed each time.
- After this, the dough will become even softer and more liquid – it should be kneaded very well. To do this, transfer the mixture to a work surface and manually begin the kneading process, collecting the dough scraps that stick to the table with a scraper.
- The dough needs to be constantly flipped, stretched, and folded to achieve a soft and elastic consistency. This will take about 7-10 minutes.
- Now you can add the raisins. If they are initially dry, they should be poured with boiling water and dried with a paper towel (soft raisins don't need this). Incorporate the raisins to ensure they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
- Shape the dough into a ball, place it in oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Next, put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour – the dough will rise and become denser, stop spreading, and be easier to work with later.
- After the specified time, remove the dough and knead it gently in the bowl for 2 minutes. Then send it back to the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- After the indicated time, you can start shaping. For this, fill the molds with dough a little below their midpoint. Silicone containers do not need to be greased, unlike metal ones.
- Cover the molds with film and leave for proofing.
- After 1-1.5 hours, the dough will rise. The oven should be preheated to 190 degrees in advance.
- Send the preparations to the middle level of the oven and bake until golden brown (about 20 minutes).
- Allow the cakes to cool in the molds until warm. Then remove them, turning the narrow part (bottom) up.
- Now the preparations need to dry for 4-8 hours, after which they should be pierced with a wooden skewer throughout the volume.
- To prepare the soak, combine water with sugar and boil for a couple of minutes, ensuring all the sugar dissolves. Cool the syrup and add the flavoring (rum).
- The icing can be prepared in advance (it can be stored in the refrigerator for over a month), and before use, heat it in a water bath. Or you can start making the icing just before use. For this, combine water with sugar in a small pot.
- Over low heat, achieve complete dissolution of the sugar crystals so that none are left by the time it starts boiling. Since the solution is very supersaturated, the presence of even one crystal will trigger a chain reaction, and the hardened icing will quickly turn into sugar. If the sugar does not dissolve at all, add a little water – this will just require longer boiling of the syrup.
- When all the sugar dissolves, set the oven to maximum heat to ensure a very strong boil, otherwise the icing will turn dark.
- Cover the pot with a lid and cook the syrup for 1-2 minutes.
- Next, remove the lid and put in a thermometer.
- As soon as the temperature reaches 108 degrees, pour in the lemon juice. If you don't have a thermometer, boil the mixture for a couple more minutes before acidifying it – this will save the syrup from spontaneous crystallization.
- Continue boiling the syrup until it reaches a temperature of 115-117 degrees.
- Without a thermometer, cook the icing until the soft ball test – drop hot syrup into a plate of cold water. The drop should not spread but should form into a ball.
- This ball can be picked up with your hands to ensure it has a rounded shape.
- Next, the mixture should be quickly cooled by placing it in a container of cold water.
- When the syrup cools to 60 degrees, start whipping it with a mixer or simply – with a spatula. Gradually, the mass will whiten and become sticky. It's important not to overwhip the icing so that it doesn't turn into sugar.
- Pour the rum soak into a smaller container and dip the baba in with the pierced side down. Leave the preparation there for about 10 minutes.
- After all the cakes have been soaked, cover them with white icing.
The tastiest classic rum baba with its unchanged white hat is ready. The soft and moist sweet dough is soaked with rum syrup, giving the product a special charm, while the sweet icing enhances the pleasant taste.
