Tag: Creme Patisserie

Babà al rum, Baba au rhum, Rum Baba and Savarin – facts and legends

Babà al Rum: A Delicious Dessert with A Fascinating Journey, some facts and Legends

If you travel to Naples, one dessert you must try is the iconic Babà al rum. Neapolitans proudly claim it as their own—yet the dessert’s true origins stretch far beyond the Bay of Naples.

Freshly soaked Babà al rum served with poached pears and homemade custard.

Recently, while searching for my Moulinex at the back of a cupboard, I unearthed several rarely used baking moulds, including classic baba and savarin tins. It was the perfect excuse to revisit this legendary dessert.

What Exactly Is a Babà or a Savarin?

A Baba au rhum (French spelling) is a rich yeast cake made with eggs, flour, milk and butter, then soaked in an aromatic rum syrup. It is often served with pastry cream.

A Savarin is a larger, ring-shaped cake made from a similar dough. It is soaked in syrup and typically filled with pastry cream, Chantilly cream or fresh fruit—and sometimes enriched with raisins or sultanas.

In Naples, babà are often shaped into small mignons, but savarin-style babà are also popular.

Inspiration from the Kitchen

My partner has been experimenting with sourdough and fresh yeast. When he arrived home with an excess supply of yeast, I suggested rum babà—simple to make and wonderfully rewarding.
He researched techniques on YouTube and found demonstrations by Italian pastry chefs. One video showed a chef dramatically pinching and twirling the dough to “flick” it into moulds. Another featured Chef Rita, who shared her own interpretation of the dessert’s origins—an entertaining blend of fact and legend.

The Legends: Poland, France… and Ali Baba?

According to Chef Rita’s version, a Polish sovereign once hurled a dry cake across the table, striking a bottle of rum. The cake absorbed the liquor, filling the room with an intoxicating aroma. Delighted, he asked his cooks to perfect this rum-soaked dessert—and named it Ali Baba after the book he was reading, A Thousand and One Nights.

The story continues: when the king was later exiled to France, local chefs refined the recipe, and only when it reached Naples was the “Ali” dropped, leaving simply baba.

Amusing as this tale may be, culinary historians offer more grounded accounts.

A More Likely History of the Rum Babà

Several more reliable sources trace the origins to Eastern and Central Europe:

  • Babka, a tall, cylindrical yeast cake, is traditional in Poland and Ukraine; the word babka is related to baba, meaning “grandmother.”
  • Similar cakes exist throughout Eastern Europe, including the Gugelhupf of Alsace-Lorraine.
  • King Stanislas Leszczynski of Poland, exiled to France in the 1700s, likely introduced babka to French pastry kitchens.
  • He may have moistened dry cakes with Hungarian sweet wine—or rum—to improve their texture.
  • His daughter’s pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer, refined the recipe and later opened Patisserie Stohrer in Paris, where the modern Rum Baba became famous.
  • Variations evolved: some with brioche dough, some with raisins, some without.
  • Larousse Gastronomique credits a Parisian master baker with shaping the dessert into a ring and naming it after the gourmand Brillat-Savarin—a name later shortened to savarin.
  • Food historian Alan Davidson also confirms that Parisian bakers in the 1840s experimented extensively with the recipe.

Eventually, the French version reached Italy, and Naples made the dessert its own.

Recipe: Homemade Rum Babà (or a Small Savarin)

This recipe makes 6 babà and one small savarin, or 8 small babà.

Ingredients

  • 220 g flour
  • 12 g fresh yeast
  • Pinch of salt
  • 50 g sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 70 ml milk
  • 100 g butter

Method

Dissolve yeast and a little sugar in warm milk in a mixer bowl. Allow to froth (about 5 minutes).

Mix in 25 g of flour and let rise until doubled.

Once the dough has risen, slowly start mixing the dough and gradually add the remaining flour, sugar, salt in a bowl and then add eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

Progressively add butter and beat it until the dough then increase speed to high speed and beat it until it is smooth and glossy and begins to pull away from the bowl.

Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into greased dariole moulds. Let rise until it reaches the top.

Baba dough proving in traditional dariole moulds before baking.

Bake at 180°C until golden.

Cool completely, prick all over with a skewer and store in an airtight container until ready to soak.

Rum Syrup

Most recipes use very sweet syrups, but we preferred this balanced version:

  • 2 L water
  • 400 g sugar
  • 400 ml rum
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Juice of ½ lemon

For the rum syrup, in a saucepan mix water, sugar, lemon zest from1 lemon and juice from 1/2 lemon and over medium heat stir until sugar dissolves, then simmer until syrupy (5 minutes).

Add the rum and gently place the babas in the syrup, turning lightly until soaked through.

Drain before serving.

To Serve

I paired the babà with poached pears and a silky homemade egg custard.

Simple Egg Custard

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar infused with vanilla
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp cornflour
  • 400 ml milk
  • Rind of ½ lemon
  • 1 cinnamon stick
In a saucepan, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and slowly add the flour, salt and a little milk to make a smooth paste – a whisk could be useful. If you do not have sugar that has been infused with a vanilla bean, use a little vanilla essence (not artificial).
Add the rest of the milk and incorporate to dilute the mixture evenly.
Using a vegetable peeler remove the rind in one piece from ½ lemon. Add this to the milk mixture. Add the cinnamon stick.
Use low – medium heat, stir it constantly with a whisk or a wooden spoon and slowly bring it to the boil- the custard should have thickened.
To make a creamier pastry cream, add a few pieces of room temperature butter while the custard is warm. Add a bit at a time, and whisk until well blended.
Cool before using. To prevent a skin from forming, I place a piece of baking paper or butter paper on its surface.

SAVARIN

I decorated it with poached mandarine segments and custard in the middle.

ZUPPA INGLESE, a famous, Italian dessert