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Dessert

Baba

A sweet yeast cake made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, yeast, candied peel, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Baba

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour and make a hole in the center.

  2. Add the yeast into the hole and mix in part of the warm milk.

  3. Cover the bowl and let it stand in a warm place until risen.

  4. Add the remaining warm milk and beaten eggs, and mix well with a wooden spoon, gradually incorporating all the flour.

  5. Add the butter and a pinch of salt, then mix thoroughly.

  6. Stir in the sifted sugar and candied peel.

  7. Add a small quantity of warm milk and mix thoroughly.

  8. Incorporate the beaten eggs one at a time.

Prove and bake

  1. Butter a circular mold shaped like a ring.

  2. Pour the mixture into the mold and let it stand near the fire for 5 to 6 hours in cold weather, or a shorter time in summer.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 1 hour or until brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and feeds the yeast while helping the crust brown.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and yeast to form a soft, workable dough.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise near the fire. Yeast needs warmth to ferment, but too much heat kills it or overcooks the outside. Timing must match the weather, since cold weather needs the full 5 to 6 hours and summer needs less, so the dough doubles in size before baking.

“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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