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Today we will present a very special recipe: the Neapolitan Babá! We will do it together with our forum member TonyZ.
Let’s start!Babá
Babá (or babbá) is a small yeast cake soaked in a hard liquor, usually rum. It inspired on the original Polish cake called babka. It is very, very popular in Neapolitan cuisine.
The recipe requires more or less 4 hours in total. But let’s start from what you will need.
What you will need:
Typical babá moulds.
As you can see in the picture (baking equipment) there are different types of mould. The original one is a cone shape with diameters 4.5 cm and 6.5 cm and height of 7 cm. In any case, also the typical muffin shape will be fine enough.
Flour. Use a very strong flour, with a W>350 or protein content >13.5%. I use a flour with W400.
Rum. You are going to need a dark rum, with alcohol content >40%. I can suggest these two:
Ingredients for 12 babá(s)
Very strong flour (W>350, or protein content >13.5%) ____ 300 gr
Eggs ____ 6, medium size
Butter _____ 90 gr
Sugar _____ 2 teaspoons
Fresh compressed yeast ____ 15 gr
Salt _____ 7 gr
Procedure
It is not much different from some pizza preparations. We make a first dough and we add it to a second dough when it rises enough. Let’s see all the steps:
Fisrt dough
Add the yeast to 30 grams of water and 30 grams of flour. Cover and keep at 28-30 °C. Wait until it reaches more or less the volume of this picture:
Final dough
Separate the yolk’s egg from the rest and add them in the mixing bowl (better if you use a kneading machine). Start the machine at low speed, just the time to mix the eggs’ white. Start adding the flour, slowly, to obtain a soft dough. More or less should be 150-180 gr of flour depending on eggs size. When the dough is all attached to the beater, cover with cling film and wait 30-40 minutes.
The time required to obtain a nice, smooth dough can vary depending on lots of factors, like flour strength, room temperature, kneading machine performances, etc. Anyway don’t worry if it takes 40 minutes, what is important is the result!
After the 30-40 minutes, add the first dough, a little bit of flour and restart the machine (always with the beater, not the hook). Here we need to develop a strong gluten network. When we have a strong gluten network we can start adding two egg yolks and a bit of flour. As soon as we start having a strong resistance we can increase the kneading speed. Now we can add two egg yolks, sugar and a bit of flour. When we have again a strong gluten network we add the last two egg yolks, salt and almost all the remaining flour.
We need to obtain a nice, smooth and strong dough. Once we reach this state, we can add the butter. Butter should not be cold from fridge, but it should also not be liquefied. Just leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes. Add it in small chunks. When we added half of the total amount, stop the kneading and flip the dough. This will reduce the stress on the dough, by reaching a final strength much faster. When we have finished adding the butter we add the remaining flour.
The dough is ready when it doesn’t stick to the bowl’s walls and it is smooth and strong.
First rising
Cover the bowl with a lid or cling film and keep it at 28-30 °C (oven with only the light on might be enough). When the volume is three times the starting volume we are ready for the shaping. Careful, here it gets tough
Shaping
One main feature of Babá is its spongy, soft and closed crumb. We don’t want big holes here. It needs to be a sponge that will adsorb the rum. Lightly dust your working bench, do a round of folds by bringing the outside of the dough towards the inside. Now we start by cutting the portions. Check out this video for the shaping:
One alternative to the above shaping method would be making balls shapes, about one third of the mould volume. Then, with a scraper try to shape the bottom part of the ball in order to provide some strength. Finally, spread some butter on the inner surfaces of the mould and place your doughs in it.
Second rising
Cover the moulds and put them at 28-30°C temperature. Wait until the doughs reached the top border of the mould.
Baking
Bake for 25 minutes at 180°C without any convection.
Soaking with rum
I prefer a liquid that is not too sweet. The rum should be the main flavour. Boil 1 liter of water with 500 grams of sugar. Add some lemon or orange zests. Boil for about 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and wait that the syrup reaches 40°C. Add 150 grams of rum (if the syrup is too hot, the alcohol will evaporate and trust me, we don’t want that).
While it is still warm we soak our babá and we squeeze them. Repeat soaking/squeezing to adsorb the syrup. Place them with the head down. Do not worry, they will not break.
Make you babá shining!
If you have ever seen babá before, you probably saw them shining. How do we do that? It’s actually very simple. Re-heat your previously prepared syrup and add 2-3 spoons of apricots jam. Let the liquid to go through a strainer and brush the outer surfaces of your babá with this “gelatine”.
Now, you are ready to eat them! You can have them plain, or with whipped cream or with a crčme patisserie. If you still has some of the syrup left you can do two things:
1) Pour some spoons on top of your babá
2) You can re-use it in a week for some new babá
Enjoy!
Here some pictures of other members of the forum babá, made with this recipe:
antonio_me:
Venpao:
LaPergamena:
maciole:
dany.1974:
Asimmetrico:
BabboPasticcione:
Onorino:
Chiara e Tuorlo:
mammaforfive:
Tempo@:
Gnammmm:
Notturno Italiano:
homer76:
O' guaglion:
ustica:
gux:
Ealiel:
Galla Placidia:
Sassof:
punto e basta:
Lia:
alebis:
<b>.
Neapolitan Babá |
