Rum baba is a sweet that is widely known not onlyonly in the former Soviet Union. With some variations, they are also baked in Europe. Which is logical, since it is from there. The invention of the rum baba is attributed to the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislav Leszczynski, who lived and ruled in the 18th century. He found the cake a bit dry, so he came up with the idea of dipping it in sweet wine. French chefs got involved (it wasn't the monarch himself who baked it, of course), and improved the idea. And as a result, today we have such a culinary masterpiece as the rum baba, the recipe for which has been tested for more than one century.
Recipe almost according to GOST
Almost – because grams are rounded to tens.For example, instead of 103 grams, it is suggested to take 100. On an industrial scale, it was not difficult to maintain such proportions, but in the kitchen, in our opinion, there is no particular need for them. Ingredients:
- Flour 280 g + 130 for spices
- Fresh (pressed) yeast - 10 g
- Water for Opal 130 ml
- Sugar 100 g
- Butter - 100 g
- Egg + yolk
- Salt - ¼ tsp
- Dark raisins - 50 g
- Vanilla sugar or vanillin
Preparation: Make the dough in advance.Grind the yeast with a small amount of sugar. Pour in warm water, stir, add 130 g of flour. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl, cover with cling film and put in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours. If the fermentation process goes too quickly, move it to a cooler place. The finished dough should increase in size by 2-3 times. When the dough is ready, start kneading the dough. Beat the egg and yolk with sugar and vanilla. Melt the butter and mix with the egg mass. Pour in the dough, and then gradually pour in the flour mixed with salt. Knead a smooth dough. At the end of kneading, add raisins. Cover the dough with cling film and put in a warm place to rise for 40-45 minutes. During this time, the dough needs to be kneaded twice, at the moment when it has doubled in size. The risen dough is divided into portions and placed in special molds, greased with oil, so that it takes up 1/3 of the volume of the mold. Leave for another 45-60 minutes to rise. Preheat the oven to 190-200C. Bake the babas for 20-30 minutes, until done. Remove from the oven and cool in the molds. While the babas are rising and baking, prepare the syrup and glaze. Ingredients for the syrup:
- 550 ml of water
- 500 g of sugar
- 50 g of rum (cognac)
Bring water and sugar to a boil and simmer over low heat until the mixture reduces in volume by approximately 10%. Turn off, cool and pour in rum. Stir. Sugar fondant:
- 1 kg of sugar
- 330 ml of water
- 4 g of citric acid or 80 g of lemon juice
Boil water with sugar and simmer on high heatheat to a temperature of 108C (here you will need a special thermometer or just a few attempts). Pour in lemon juice or diluted citric acid and cook for about half an hour to 115C. You can check the "weak ball test". This is how it is done: wet a spoon in cold water, take a small portion of the syrup and quickly lower it into a glass of cold water. If the syrup has curdled into a clot, similar in consistency to sour cream. As soon as the desired condition is achieved, turn off the syrup and leave to cool to a temperature of about 60C. Beat the cooled syrup until a white creamy liquid is formed. Next comes the process of turning simple babas into rum ones. Take the cooled product by the "top" and lower the "bottom" into the syrup for soaking. Then put it on a plate or baking sheet with the "bottom" up so that the syrup soaks the entire baba. After this comes the glazing stage. Taking the baba by the wide part, lower its narrow part (“bottom”) into the white glaze. It is clear that the glaze should be warm. Place the baba with the glaze facing up and decorate as desired – with nuts, fruits, berries. When the glaze hardens, the baba can be used as intended. Undoubtedly, the recipe for rum baba is not for beginners in the kitchen. Firstly, because of the yeast dough, which few people can do on the first try. Secondly, the syrup and glaze require skills and abilities. But if you have experience “communicating” with yeast and sugar syrup, then you have every chance to treat yourself to tender juicy pastries. For those who are afraid to deal with yeast dough, we offer another recipe, no less tasty and aromatic cake with prunes and rum.
Cupcake with prunes
Ingredients:
- Flour - 1 glass
- Eggs - 3 pieces.
- Sugar - 100 g
- Honey - 2 tbsp.
- Milk - ¼ cup
- Butter - 50 g
- Baking Powder - 1 teaspoon
- Prunes without pips - 200 g
- Dark raisins - 100 g
- Walnuts, chistened - 50 g
- Rum - how much it is not a pity (in fact - half a cup to soak prunes)
Preparation:Soak the prunes in rum for half an hour or more. Remove and cut into strips. Rinse and dry the raisins. Grind warm butter with sugar, beat in eggs one at a time. Pour in milk, honey, mix well. Add baking powder to the flour. Pour flour in portions into the liquid mixture, kneading a homogeneous, thin dough. Pour in chopped nuts. Grease a cake pan with butter. Pour some of the dough onto the bottom. Put the prunes and raisins on top, pour the remaining dough on top. Keep in mind that the pan should not be filled more than halfway, the dough will definitely rise in the oven. Bake at 180C for about 30 minutes. Check readiness with a dry toothpick. Cool first in the pan, then take out and cool completely on a wire rack. The rum left over from soaking can be heated with water and sugar and poured over the finished cake in the pan (while it is still warm). The male half of the family will definitely appreciate this move! If you do not yet have a good tradition of Sunday home baking, winter is the best time to start one (a tradition, that is). A fragrant moist rum baba is a perfectly acceptable luxury in the cold season, even for those who are on a diet. Once a week is definitely possible! We recommend reading:
