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Dessert

Baba Au Bbum

A yeasted cake flavored with rum, baked in a mold and served hot with syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Au Bbum

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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix ¼ of the flour with the yeast and tepid water; cover until well risen.

  2. On a board, place the remaining flour and make a hollow in the middle.

  3. Add salt, sugar, and tepid milk (or cream) to the hollow.

  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  5. Add the yeast mixture and rum; mix until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a baking mold with butter and fill it halfway with the batter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) until the cake is a rich color.

  3. Serve hot with syrup over it.

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 + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Rum + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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
Provides the structure that holds the risen dough and cake together.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the cake set and hold its shape.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough.
Rum
Adds aroma and flavor to the cake.

The step that matters

Let the yeast mixture rise fully before mixing. Yeast needs time to ferment and produce gas; if the starter is not well risen, the dough will be dense and the baba will not rise properly 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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