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baba Italian pastry
Baba (sweet yeast dough buns, flavored with currants, raisins and citron, topped with Madeira wine syrup)
Originated from: Naples, Campania, Italy
Occasion: Any time & special times
Contributed by: Recipe from, "Desserts and Salads" by Gesine Lemcke (1920); notes, Italian Wikipedia; photo: Mary Melfi

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Ingredients

3/4 pound flour
1/2 pound butter
5 eggs
2 ounces sugar
the finely chopped peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 teaspoonful salt
1 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup warm milk
2 ounces well washed and dried currants
1 1/2 ounces seedless raisins
1 1/2 ounces finely cut citron
A little finely cut candied orange peel

For syrup
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup Madeira wine

*Dariole molds are needed to cook the dough in order to get the required mushroom shape



Directions

Mix yeast, milk and 1/2 cup flour together and set it in a warm place to rise.

Stir the butter to a cream, add the sugar and next the eggs, one at a time, stirring a few minutes between each addition.

Next add the yeast which was set in a warm place to rise, then the flour and fruit.

Beat the whole thoroughly with the right had for 15 minutes; cover with a clean cloth and let it rise to double its size; press it down and let it rise again.

Then put it into a well buttered from with a tube in center, which should be 1/4 full; let it rise till form is full; paste with the white of egg a strip of buttered paper around the top edge of form and bake the cake about 1 hour.

When done turn the cake out of form and set it for a few minutes in the oven to dry.



In the meantime put 1/2 cup sugar with 3/4 cup Madeira wine over the fire; let it get hot and pour all over the baba; serve either hot or cold on a napkin.



SMALL BABABS ARE MADE OF THE SAME DOUGH and baked in small deep forms, otherwise treated the same as above. Instead of Madeira any other kind of wine may be used; also vanilla or pineapple syrup.


Notes

The recipe in this entry was taken from "Desserts and Salads" by Gesine Lemcke. The cookbook was published by D.Appleton and Company in New York in 1920. For the complete copyright-free cookbook visit www.Gutenberg.org.... The following text can be found at ITALIAN WIKIPEDIA (google machine translation): Baba with rum Origins Place of origin Italy Region Campania Area of ​​production The Campania Details Category sweet Recognition PAT Sector Fresh pasta and bakery products, biscuits, cakes, pastry and confectionery The baba or babba is a sweet baked dough with yeast of beer, typical pastry Neapolitan. Its diameter can vary from 5-7 cm up to 35-40 cm. It's also divided into two and filled with chocolate or cream. In addition, there is also a version with essence of bergamot. Historical Background. The baba is a derivation of a sweet sourdough, a native of Poland, which is called Babka ponczowa, "sweet grandmother" (from Babka , "old"), and kept the round shape with the cream in the middle. Used by French chefs, the "baba" has taken the accent on the final syllable, while the Neapolitans have doubled consonant. The inventor of the baba was King Stanislaus Leszczyński, being in-law of Louis XV, was delighted to invent new dishes. The sovereign, edentulous, apparently could not eat Kugelhupf, a typical dessert of the French Alsace, which he found too dry. It was then soaked in Tokaj and syrup. The typical mushroom shape is due to the famous confectioner Nicolas Stohrer, who arrived in Paris with Maria Lesczynska, girlfriend of the French King. At number 51 of rue Montorgueil still the house offers some delicious sweet taste. Another version of the origins reminded them of the king flared skirt (round) of older women who are called Babka. Another story tells that the king, bad-tempered, sweet flung against a cupboard, smashing a bottle of rum. She went to soak the cake and Stanislaus then tasted it and found it very good. In the nineteenth century the master Brillat-Savarin invented a liquor which was matched to fruit salads. The French pastry of the "brothers Julien" had the idea to close the salad in a baba properly brushed with apricot jam, was born the baba "Savarin". The earliest sources on the Neapolitan sweet date back to 1836 when the cook culinary Angeletti wrote a manual that describes the recipe with raisins and saffron, these gradients lost over the years because of the "vulgarization" of commercial bakeries that have baked with new types cream and sour cherries or maybe served mignon with ice cream parfait Recipe The technique of kneading and rising times are two great secrets of this renowned dessert. It is left to rise for a long time in a mold of a truncated cone elongated, then baked in a hot oven. Takes on an amber color and a characteristic shape of a "mushroom". After cooking is extracted, and you do it "dry" for at least a day to lose most of the moisture. Then is placed partially submerged in large containers filled with hot liquid of choice: sugar syrup, rum, or other liquors such as limoncello . It is, finally, summarily deprived of excess liquid and sent to authorized retailers. Some bakeries will cover the surface with a glaze apricot, which makes it more shiny and attractive. A variant of the baba is the so-called "savarin", which while retaining the same basic ingredients of the baba provides for the introduction of a bit of milk in the dough: the result is a paste clearer and spongy, less sour flavor, that lends itself much better to the production of large "sweet baba" garnish with whipped cream, fruit and jelly........... Original Italian Wikipedia text: Baba col rum Origini Luogo d'origine Italia Regione Campania Zona di produzione Tutta la Campania Dettagli Categoria dolce Riconoscimento P.A.T. Settore Paste fresche e prodotti della panetteria, della biscotteria, della pasticceria e della confetteria Il baba o babba un dolce da forno a pasta lievitata con lievito di birra, tipico della pasticceria napoletana. Il suo diametro pui variare da 5-7 cm fino a 35?40 cm. Lo si trova anche diviso in due e ripieno con del cioccolato o panna. Inoltre, esiste anche una versione con essenza di bergamotto. Il baba una derivazione di un dolce a lievitazione naturale, originario della Polonia, che si chiama babka ponczowa, "dolce della nonna" (da babka, "vecchia"), e ha mantenuto la forma tonda con la crema in mezzo. Utilizzato dai cuochi francesi, il "baba" ha assunto l'accento sulla sillaba finale, mentre i napoletani gli hanno raddoppiato la consonante. L'inventore del bab? fu il re Stanislao Leszczyński che, essendo suocero di Luigi XV, si dilettava ad inventare sempre nuovi piatti. Il sovrano, edentulo, pare non potesse mangiare il kugelhupf, un dolce tipico francese dell'Alsazia che egli trovava troppo asciutto. Fu allora bagnato di Tokaj e di sciroppo. La tipica forma a fungo la si deve al celebre pasticciere Nicolas Stohrer, giunto a Parigi con Maria Lesczynska, fidanzata del sovrano francese. Al numero 51 di rue Montorgueil ancora oggi la maison offre certe prelibatezze dal sapore dolce. Un'altra versione delle origini faceva ricordare al re la gonna a campana (tonde) delle donne anziane che si chiamano babka. Un'altra storia racconta che il re, dal pessimo carattere, scagliasse il dolce contro una credenza, fracassando una bottiglia di rum. Questa and ad inzuppare il dolce e Stanislao allora lo assaggi, trovandolo ottimo. Nel XIX secolo il maestro Brillat-Savarin invent un liquore che ben si accompagnava alle macedonie di frutta. La pasticceria francese dei "fratelli Julien" ebbe l'idea di chiudere la macedonia in un baba opportunamente spennellato di confettura di albicocche, nacque cosi il baba "Savarin". Le prime fonti partenopee sul dolce risalgono al 1836 quando il cuoco Angeletti scrisse un manuale culinario in cui descritta la ricetta con uvetta e zafferano, questi ultimi gradienti persi negli anni a causa della volgarizzazione delle pasticcerie commerciali che ne hanno sfornati nuovi tipi con crema e amarene o magari servito mignon con gelato semifreddo. Ricetta La tecnica di impasto ed i tempi di lievitazione rappresentano due grandi segreti di questo rinomato dolce. I lasciato lievitare a lungo in uno stampo a tronco di cono allungato, quindi cotto in forno ben caldo. Assume un colore ambrato ed una caratteristica forma a "fungo". Terminata la cottura viene estratto, e lo si fa "asciugare" per almeno un giorno affinch? perda la maggior parte dell'umidit. Successivamente posto parzialmente immerso in ampi contenitori pieni di liquido caldo a scelta: sciroppo di zucchero, rum, o altri liquori come il limoncello. infine, sommariamente privato del liquido in eccesso ed inviato ai rivenditori autorizzati. Alcune pasticcerie ne ricoprono la superficie con una glassa all'albicocca, che lo rende piu lucido e attraente. Una variante del baba il cosiddetto "savarin", che pur conservando gli stessi ingredienti di base del baba prevede l'introduzione di un po di latte nell'impasto: il risultato una pasta piu chiara e spugnosa, dal sapore meno acidulo, che si presta ancor meglio alla produzione di grosse "torte baba" da guarnire con panna, frutta e gelatina...... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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