Italian recipe: baba with rum

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At DitisItalie.nl we love Neapolitan sweets, especially in December! Lotje already translated the recipe for sfogliatelle ricce and Yoëll who lived in Naples for a while also wrote a blog about 6 Neapolitan delicacies. In this list was also the baba with rum. You can find these sweet rolls in De Zilveren Lepel's beautiful cookbook about Naples, which is now in the shops and from which we give you this recipe.

Ingredients for the dough

2 sachets (14 g in total) active dried yeast
50 ml warm milk
2 tablespoons plus a pinch of sugar
5 eggs
250 g flour
pinch of salt
125 g butter, at room temperature

Ingredients for the fruit

4-5 tablespoons raisins
8 dried plums, cut in half
250 ml light rum
2 apples, peeled, cored and in eights
3 pears, peeled, cored and cut into six
375 ml water
3 tablespoons of sugar
grated zest of ½ lemon

Preparation of the baba

Make the dough. Dissolve the yeast in a glass with 2 tablespoons of milk and a pinch of sugar. Let everything stand for 10 minutes. Beat 3 eggs in a bowl. Place the flour in a mound on the counter and make a well in the center. Add the salt, yeast mixture, 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons sugar and half the butter.

Add the rest of the milk and knead thoroughly. Add the remaining 2 eggs and the butter and knead until the dough releases from the counter. Place the dough in a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Butter 20 baba molds (or a 2½-3 liter Savarin mold) and dust them with flour. Scoop the soft dough into the mold(s) with a wooden spoon. Cover and let it rise until the dough reaches the edge of the mould(s). Meanwhile, prepare the fruit. Mix the raisins and prunes in a bowl with enough rum to just cover everything. Let them stand for 15 minutes. Then drain them well.

Mix the apples, pears, drained raisins and prunes in a large saucepan. Add the water, the remaining rum, the sugar and the lemon zest and cook over a moderate heat until the apples and pears are tender (about 20 minutes). Remove the pan from the heat and let the fruit cool in the syrup.

Buon appetito!

Photo: Simon Bajada, Phaidon Press Limited, 2016

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