Rum baba: the recipe explained in detail

Ingredients

Baba dough:

• 300 g flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 40 g sugar
• 15 g fresh baker’s yeast
• 3 eggs
• 90 g butter

Syrup:

• 750 ml water
• 200 g sugar
• 1 lemon
• 75 ml rum
• 1/2 vanilla bean

Decoration:

• 80 g apricot jam
• 400 ml whipping cream

Materials

• Stand mixer or dough mixer
• Baba/savarin mold

Preparation

• Put the flour, salt, yeast (making sure it doesn’t touch the salt), sugar, and eggs in the bowl of your stand mixer. Knead for about 4 minutes. Cut the butter into pieces and gradually add it while continuing to knead. Then knead at medium speed for about 10 minutes. The dough should come away from the sides of the bowl.
• Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl. Cover with a cloth and leave it to rise for 1 hour at room temperature.
  Then make a hole in the center of the dough ball and widen it to form an even ring.
  
• Place the ring of dough in a greased savarin mold, then leave it to rise again for 1 hour at room temperature. Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C (350°F). Turn out the baba and leave it to cool.
• For the syrup: Put the sugar, water, zest of 1 lemon, and juice of both lemons in a large pot. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Add the rum and the split vanilla bean with its seeds. Cover the pot and let infuse for 15 minutes.
  
• Place the cooled baba on a rack set over a deep baking tray or another dish that can catch the syrup. Using a ladle, gradually pour the syrup over the baba to soak it. Once you’ve used all the syrup, feel free to collect it and repeat the process a second time. Refrigerate the baba for 30 minutes.
• Microwave the apricot jam for 30 seconds, then strain it to remove the fruit pieces. Brush the cooled baba with the jam to make it shine.
  
• For extra indulgence, feel free to add whipped cream in the center of the baba, which you can sprinkle with lemon zest.
• And there you have it, your rum baba is ready! For rum lovers, serve it with a bottle, as some may want to add more to their slice.
  

Observations

The syrup: You can add other flavorings, such as cinnamon. You can also add more or less rum.

My dough isn’t coming away from the bowl: If it still isn’t coming away from the bowl after 10 minutes of kneading once the butter has been incorporated, put the mixer bowl in the fridge. Leave it for about 10 minutes, then knead again. The dough warms up easily, and kneading it for too long can make it warm up.

Soaking: If you have a large basin, it’s better to soak the baba in the syrup than to pour the syrup over it. You can prepare the syrup in advance, but in that case, pour it over the hot baba as soon as it comes out of the oven (cold syrup on hot baba OR hot syrup on cold baba).

Questions

Photos of members who cooked this recipe