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Baba Cakes with Apricots
1 1/2 cups flour 1 yeast cake dissolved in 1/2 cup lukewarm water 2/3 cup butter 4 eggs 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt Make sponge of one-half cup flour and dissolved yeast cake; cover and let rise. Mix remaining flour with butter, two eggs, sugar, and salt. Beat thoroughly, and add, while beating, remaining eggs, one at a time, then beat until mixture is perfectly smooth. As soon as sponge has doubled its bulk, combine mixtures, beat thoroughly, and half fill buttered individual tins. Let rise, and bake in a moderate oven. Remove from tins, cut a circular piece from top of each, and scoop out a small quantity of the inside. Fill centres thus made with Apricot Marmalade, replace circular pieces, and serve with Wine Sauce.
A rich yeasted batter closer to brioche than to cake, baked in individual tins and hollowed for a filling. The original gives no times, temperatures or yield, so those are the gaps worth filling.
- The yeast cakeA yeast cake of this era was usually a compressed cake of roughly 0.6 oz, broadly equivalent to one packet (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast, though cake sizes varied. Dissolve it in the half cup of lukewarm water, around 105F, and let the sponge stand until doubled as the recipe directs -- likely 30 to 45 minutes.
- Butter temperature is the hingeThe 2/3 cup butter must be genuinely soft, not melted and not cold, or the batter will break when the eggs go in. Beat it with the flour, sugar and first two eggs until creamy before adding the remaining eggs one at a time.
- It is a batter, not a doughWith four eggs to a cup and a half of flour this will be a slack, sticky mixture that cannot be kneaded by hand. A stand mixer with the paddle, eight to ten minutes on medium, gives the smooth elastic sheen the recipe means by "perfectly smooth."
- Moderate ovenBake at 350F. Small tins take about 18 to 22 minutes; the babas should be deep gold and register around 200F inside.
- Rising timesAfter filling the tins halfway, let them rise until the batter reaches the rim, roughly 45 minutes to an hour in a warm room. The enriched batter is slow, so do not rush it into the oven.
- YieldAbout ten to twelve babas in standard muffin cups or dariole moulds. Butter the tins generously; the sugar and egg make them stick.
- The fillingsApricot Marmalade and Wine Sauce appear to be separate entries elsewhere in the book. Any thick apricot preserve works; wine sauces of this period are generally sweetened and thickened and served warm, but the book's own version should be followed where available.
- ServingHollow and fill the babas while just warm, replace the cut lids, and sauce them at the table. They stale quickly and are best the day they are baked.