No. 129

Baba Paste

Pate a Baba

Sift a pound of flour on the table, divide it in four even parts and use one of these to make the leaven by forming it in a circle and placing three quarters of an ounce of yeast in the center, diluting with a little warm milk to obtain a soft paste; roll this into a ball, cut it crosswise on the top with two cuts of the knife and lay it in a floured vessel; cover with a cloth and leave to rise in a mild temperature to double its size. Pile the remainder of the flour into a hillock, make a hole in the center to form a hollow and in it lay an ounce of sugar, a spare half ounce of salt (according to the saltness of the butter), six ounces of butter and six eggs. Mix all the ingredients well together and work the flour in slowly, then begin to knead the paste so that it becomes smooth and acquires a body slowly adding three more eggs and four ounces of butter; continue to knead until again quite smooth with plenty of body, then mix in the leaven, wrapping it lightly in the paste and cutting the whole in every direction until thoroughly mingled and the paste is finished, then add to it two ounces of seeded Malaga raisins, two ounces of Sultana or Smyrna currants softened in water, two ounces of cherries cut in four and two ounces of finely cut up citron. Lay the paste in a vessel, cover with a cloth and let rise to a third more than its size, then break it up with a spoon; the paste is now ready to be used.

← No. 128 Almond Paste with Pistachios Elementary Methods No. 130 Brioche Paste →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a component formula rather than a finished dish: Ranhofer gives the dough only, leaving the moulding, baking and rum syrup to the entries that follow. It is a sponge-and-dough brioche, very rich, and it behaves accordingly.

The hinge: build the body before the butter finishesThe hinge: build the body as the butter goes in — Ranhofer has you knead the paste smooth and with body while slowly adding the last three eggs and four ounces of butter, then knead smooth again. Fat worked into an underdeveloped dough tends to give a slack batter that holds gas poorly, and the baba can bake dense.
Quantities in modern termsOne pound of flour is about 3½ cups (450 g); the butter totals 10 oz (285 g) and the eggs nine, roughly 450 g shelled. That is a very high proportion of fat and egg to flour, so expect a dough that looks broken and greasy for several minutes before it comes together.
YeastThree quarters of an ounce means fresh compressed yeast, about 21 g. That is roughly 7 g of active dry or instant yeast, and all of it goes into the leaven, not the main dough.
The salt is highA "spare half ounce" is a little under 14 g, roughly 2¼ teaspoons of fine salt for a pound of flour, near 3 percent. Ranhofer says to judge by the saltiness of the butter, which in 1894 could be very salt indeed; with unsalted butter, less is nearer the mark.
KneadingThe table-and-hollow method is the classic French fountain, and it works, but a stand mixer with the dough hook does the same job in 10 to 15 minutes on medium. Hand-kneading a dough this buttery wants a cool room and a bench scraper.
Rising timesNone are given. In a warm kitchen the leaven may double in about 45 minutes and the finished paste rise by a third in an hour to ninety minutes; "a mild temperature" is not defined in the book. "Break it up with a spoon" appears to mean knock the risen dough back.
The fruitMalaga raisins were large seeded muscatels — use muscatel or plump dark raisins. "Sultana or Smyrna currants" is period usage for small dried grapes; sultanas or dried currants will do. The cherries are presumably candied rather than fresh, and citron is candied citron peel, still sold for fruitcake.

A Little History

Baba is the enriched, fruited yeast cake that stands behind baba au rhum, and its origins are traditional rather than documented: the story generally told credits Stanislas Leszczyński, the deposed Polish king who held the duchy of Lorraine in the mid-eighteenth century, with having a dry kugelhopf moistened with sweet wine, the idea later carried to Paris by his household's pastry cooks. What is certain is that by the nineteenth century baba dough was standard equipment in French professional kitchens, and Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, files it here among the elementary pastes — the building blocks a cook was expected to have ready before turning to the finished entremets. The method itself, a small pre-fermented leaven worked into a much richer main dough, is the same two-stage technique used for brioche in the entry immediately following, and it exists because heavy butter and egg slow yeast badly; giving the yeast a lean start solves that.}