Tag: Pastry Cream

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

 

MILLEFOGLIE or Millefeuille and CREMA PASTICCIERA or crème pâtissière

Millefoglie – a thousand leaves – is better known in Australia perhaps by its French name, Millefeuille.

As you can see in the photo, a Millefoglie is a magnificent and very fancy looking cake (a grand- finale- dessert), made with layers (or leaves) of thin and airy, flaky pastry. This one has three layers of pastry and two of different creams: the top layer is Chantilly cream, the other as you may guess by its delicate, green colour is crema pasticciera and ground pistachios. Look at the top of the Millefoglie and you have some crushed pistachios and some fresh strawberries. And there you have it, whether it is incidental, the red, white and green are the colours of the Italian flag.

Both France and Italy have perfected many versions of this sweet. In Verona they make Millefoglie Strachin. This is layered with Crema soufflé and as the name suggests, it is a light and airy cream filling. Icing sugar  is usually sprinkled on top.

Cake-whole_0624-800x533

In Italy the Millefoglie is associated with celebrations, for example birthdays, baptisms and communions, weddings; the square shape makes it easy to cut into portions. The puff pastry is probably the most laborious to make and because it is usually a large cake it is customarily made by pastry chefs and bought from a Pasticceria.

Mine was a gift and it came from Marianna’s pastry shop called Dolcetti. I have written about Marianna’s sweets many times on my blog because I think that she is very talented and makes a great range of delectable sweets.

This Millefoglie looks stunning and tastes as good as it looks. I do not like over sweet desserts and I would describe this as being delicately sweet.

I will not give you Marianna’s recipe – this is her secret, but there are many do-able recipes on the web. For those of you who are not keen to make your own puff pastry there are good ones on the market

I did not have to look hard for a recipe on my bookshelves either. Those of you who are old enough to have Le Cordon Bleu or Raymond Oliver’s La Cuisine will find recipes for Millefeuille – for making the puff pastry, Chantilly cream and almond custard (not pistachio).

I also found a marvellous recipe in my copy of Grande Enciclopedia illustrata della gastronomia (Guarnaschelli Gotti).

There are many recipes for making crème pâtissière or crema pasticcera or pastry cream in books and magazines and on the web.

Here are two recipes from two belle dames of cuisine, one from Ada Boni and one from Julia Child.

See English – language version below the Italian.

Ada Boni’s crema pasticciera:

Per farcire una torta per 6 persone:

Zucchero in polvere, g. 90 (3 cucchiai colmi) – tuorli d’uovo, 3 – Farina, g. 75 (3 cucchiai) – Buccia di limone o vaniglina – Latte, l. 0,500 – Facoltativo: burro, quanto una noce.

Mettete in una casseruola lo zucchero e i rossi d’uovo. Mescolate con un cucchiaio di legno e aggiungete la farina e un pezzo di buccia di limone (evitando accuratamente la parte bianca) o un po’ di buccia di limone grattata, o una puntina di vaniglina. Mettete sul fuoco il latte e quando sarà quasi bollente versatelo a piccole quantità sulle uova, la farina e lo zucchero. mescolando e sciogliendo con una piccola frusta. Quando avrete aggiunto tutto il latte, togliete via la frusta e mettete la casseruola sul fuoco, mescolando continuamente col cucchiaio di legno. Vedrete che ben presto la crema si addenserà gradatamente. Continuate a mescolarla sempre e, raggiunta l’ebollizione, lasciate che la crema bolla per cinque minuti affinché possa perdere il sapore di farina. Appena tolta dal fuoco, se credete, aggiungeteci una noce di burro, ciò che le comunica una maggiore finezza. Mescolate ancora e mentre la crema si fredda non dimenticate di mescolarla di quando in quando per impedirle di fare la pellicola alla superficie.

Easy translation and interpretation of Ada Boni’s recipe:

3 egg yolks + 3 tbsp sugar + 3 tbs flour (I prefer to use corn flour) + 500ml milk.1 level tablespoon of butter, lemon peel, either grated or a thin shaving of the peel, vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways and placed into the milk as it heats).

In a saucepan large enough to hold the milk place the 3 egg yolks with 3 tablespoons sugar and mix it with a wooden spoon until it is creamy. Gradually add 3 tablespoons flour and mix it again till it is smooth. Add a thin strip of lemon peel or grated lemon and or a little vanilla.

Heat 500ml of milk until it is nearly boiling. Pour the hot milk slowly into the egg mixture, stirring continuously and thoroughly so as to avoid lumps (I use a whisk).

Place the pan on the heat and simmer, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, until the cream thickens. Take off the stove and add the butter. Keep on stirring from time to time as the cream cools so as to prevent a skin from forming.

My notes:

To prevent a skin from forming, what I do and that is to place a piece of baking paper or cling film on the surface. Leave the custard to cool and chill it before using. Omit the butter and instead you could whip about 150ml cream and fold a little at the time into the cold custard.

Julia Child’s crème pâtissière:

1 cup sugar

5 egg yolks

½ cup plain flour

2 cups boiling milk

1 tablepoon butter

1½ tablepoons vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, gradually beat the sugar into the egg yolks and continue beating for 2–3 minutes, until the mixture is pale yellow and forms a ribbon.

Beat in the flour, then gradually pour the boiling milk in a thin stream of droplets, beating continually.

Pour the mixture into a heavy saucepan, and set it over moderately high heat. Using a wire whisk, stir continually, reaching all over the bottom of the pan.

As the sauce comes to a boil, it will get lumpy, but will smooth out as you beat it. Once the mixture comes to a boil, continue

beating over moderately low heat for 2–3 minutes to cook the flour; be careful not to scorch the bottom (regulate the heat down, and keep stirring!).

Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, and the vanilla.

Dolcetti window

Dolcetti is a Sicilian inspired pasticceria focused on bringing the tradition of sharing exquisite sweets with family and friends to Melbourne.

A few of the other posts on my blog about Dolcetti and Marianna:

Giugiulena

Christmas Dolci and Dolcetti and Pistachio Shortbread

Christmas at Dolcetti in 2014 (and Recipe for Spicchiteddi – Sicilian Biscuits)

Zeppole, Fried Sweets

Dolcetti is a Sicilian inspired pasticceria focused on bringing the tradition of sharing exquisite sweets with family and friends to Melbourne.

Marianna’s website: Dolcetti

 

 

 

ZUPPA INGLESE, Italian dessert and Alchermes

I use a Florentine ancient Liquer called Alchermes (or Alkermes) to make the famous Italian dessert called Zuppa Inglese.

Zuppa Inglese is the Italian version of the English trifle that is generally made with sponge cake, moistened with fruit syrup or/and sweet sherry, layered with cream/and or custard, jam, and most times red coloured jelly made with jelly crystals.

Trifle is still being made in UK and countries like Australia (that initially inherited much of the British cuisine) especially at Christmas. Over time there have been some little variations to the recipe, for example I have often eaten trifle in Australian homes that included preserved fruit – particularly canned peaches. Recently fresh fruit has become a popular edition, particularly strawberries.

The roots of Zuppa Inglese are shrouded in mystery, with several theories about how the dessert came to Italy. Some suggest it was introduced by Italian diplomats who tasted trifle during visits to London. Others believe it emerged in the kitchens of English expatriates living in Florence in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many of whom employed Italian kitchen staff. These Italian cooks would have adapted the traditional English trifle recipe using local ingredients: , savoiardi, crema pasticcera and perhaps some signori inglesi missed some of their cooking from home and this was what their Italian kitchen maids prepared as trifle Alchermes, the ancient Florentine, red liqueur commonly used to moisten and flavour cakes.

And thus, Zuppa Inglese was born, earning its nickname “English soup” due to its layered, somewhat “messy” appearance, which some say resembles a soup more than a neatly arranged dessert.

There are many stories about how this English dessert came to be part of Italian cuisine. Some say that perhaps Italian diplomats tasted trifle on a visit to London and this may have been their interpretation of this dessert. Others say that it probably eventuated in the kitchens of the well-off English; there were many living in Florence in the late 1800’s till the lead up of the Second World War.  Most of them employed Italian staff; . They had to use Italian ingredients – savoiardi (sponge fingers – mostly used in layered Italian desserts) and Alchermes the ancient Florentine, red liqueur commonly used to moisten and flavour cakes. Fresh cream was (and is) rarely used in cakes in Italy, but pastry cream called crema pasticcera (also crema inglese – crème anglaise) is very common. And it is easy to see how this sloppy mess could be called “soup”(zuppa).

I have seen modern Italian versions of recipes for Zuppa Inglese, which include red fruit (like berries) and many include chocolate. My mother’s version sometimes included grated dark chocolate on the top; I think that this was partly for decoration; I sometimes top it with cherries and torrone. Other modern versions I have seen have a sprinkling of coffee beans and I wonder if the makers are getting confused with Tiramisu, which because it contains coffee is often decorated with coffee beans.

In the Zuppa Inglese below I have placed a sprinkling of crushed pistacchio nuts and choccolate on top .

IMG_2302

I often make Zuppa Inglese especially when I am stuck for ideas, or have little time to prepare a dessert; it is so easy to prepare and never fails to impress.

I still use the traditional way to make it. I always assemble it in layers: sponge fingers moistened with Alchermes (either homemade or purchased at a good wine shop), cover these with crema pasticcera, repeat x 2-3 layers finishing with a layer of sponge fingers.

I use a large glass bowl to assemble the layers of ingredients (it is a pretty dessert) and keep the zuppa inglese, in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight before I intend to present it – it gives the dessert time to settle and the flavours to develop.  I finally cover it with a layer or tuffs of panna montata (literally meaning cream made into mountains – isn’t the Italian language marvellous!). it is also known as Chantilly cream, whipped cream with a little caster sugar flavoured with vanilla bean –Italians would never think about using plain cream in cakes.

Alchermes

At some stage during my research about Alchermes I found out that the name is likely to have been derived from the Arabic “al” (a) and “qirmiz” (worm). This is because it contains cochineal, which gives the liqueur its red colour. Cochineal used to be made with a particular insect which was crushed and dried, this produced a rich, red dye.

In the photo I have included a bottle of purchased Alchermes (32% volume). I also make my own , see link below.

Crema Pasticcera can be a litttle scary to make. This is the easier way to make the egg custard.

For a more authentic recipes see link below.

INGREDIENTS

3 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons caster sugar infused with a vanilla bean, a pinch of salt 3 tablespoons of cornflour, 1 litre of milk, rind of 1 lemon, and a cinnamon stick, a lump of unsalted butter.

 

PROCESSES

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. if it thickens too much, add a little more milk. Add a lunp of butter and stir it in: this will enrich the custard. Cool before using. To prevent a skin from forming, I place a piece of baking paper or butter paper on its surface until you are cready to use it.
This Zuppa Inglese looks quite impressive in a round glass bowl.
This one is topped with preserved cherries (link below), and bits of torrone.

Zuppa Inglese is the kind of dessert that’s perfect for any occasion. It’s versatile enough for a family dinner, but elegant enough to serve at a special gathering. While modern variations with berries or chocolate are delicious in their own right, there’s something about sticking with tradition that feels just right.

SEE:
 In Australia I make my Alchermes with Vodka. How to make Alchermes Alkermes the liqueur to make Zuppa Inglese: ALCHERMES/ALKERMES (The liqueur used to make Zuppa Inglese)

MILLEFOGLIE or Millefeuille and CREMA PASTICCIERA or crème pâtissière

Marmellata di cigliege (Cherry jam) and Zuppa Inglese