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Dessert

Baba with Pine Apple

A yeast cake made with Baba paste, clarified butter, and diced pineapple, baked until risen and golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,134 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baba with Pine Apple

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mould

  1. Grease a Baba mould with lard.

  2. Heat the mould in the oven until warm.

  3. Wipe out the lard with a clean cloth.

  4. Beat the clarified butter until it is white and creamy.

  5. Coat the inside of the mould with the butter.

Fill and rise

  1. Line the mould with a thin layer of Baba paste using your fingers.

  2. Gently mix the diced pineapple into the Baba paste.

  3. Fill the mould with the paste.

  4. Cover the mould with buttered paper to prevent overflow.

  5. Let the paste rise until it is about three times its original size.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the mould on a baking sheet lined with folded paper.

  3. Bake for about 45 minutes.

  4. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer into the center; it should come out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + pineappletop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Baba paste
Forms the soft, airy crumb that makes up the body of the cake.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and helps the mould release and the crust brown evenly.
Pineapple slices, diced
Adds moisture and a fruity sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Letting the paste rise. The paste needs to rise to about three times its size before baking so the cake becomes light and fills the mould. Under-proofed paste bakes dense, while over-proofed paste can collapse in the oven.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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