Rum Baba — Alain Ducasse's Formula
Alain Ducasse's professional formula makes fifteen yeasted babas, soaks them in vanilla-citrus syrup and serves them with rum and vanilla whipped cream. Fabrico Próprio documents the same base construction on Portuguese counters: porous yeasted cake, rum syrup and chantilly. Shape and service vary, so this is an attributed chef's recipe, not a claim to one national formula.
- Yields
- 15 pieces
- Prep
- About 1 hr 30 min proving, plus preparation and cooling
- Cook
- About 25 min at 175°C / 345°F
Ingredients
- 400 g / 14.1 oz Flour
- 4 g / 0.14 oz Salt
- 140 g / 4.9 oz Butter for the dough
- 17 g / 0.6 oz Baker's yeast
- 17 g / 0.6 oz Honey
- 500 g / 17.6 oz Eggs weighed without shells
- Quantity not stated Butter for the moulds
- 1 litre / 33.8 fl oz Water for the syrup
- 500 g / 17.6 oz Sugar for the syrup
- 1 split pod and its seeds Vanilla for the syrup
- 1 Zest strip from an unwaxed orange
- 1 Zest strip from an unwaxed lemon
- 1 litre / 33.8 fl oz Whipping cream
- 200 g / 7.1 oz Sugar for the whipped cream
- 1/2 pod, split Vanilla for the whipped cream
- 50 g / 1.8 oz Apricot glaze or jelly for glossing
- Quantity not stated by the source Rum
Method
Preheat the oven to 175°C / 345°F. In a mixer bowl combine flour, salt, butter, yeast and honey. Knead with the hook, adding the eggs gradually, until the dough releases from the sides and becomes smooth and elastic.
Butter 5 × 6 cm cylindrical moulds. Fill halfway and prove at 30–35°C / 86–95°F, or at room temperature, for about 1 hr 30 min, until the dough rises just above the rim.
Bake for about 25 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. Unmould immediately and cool on a rack.
For the syrup, heat the water, 500 g sugar, vanilla pod and seeds and the orange and lemon zests. At the boil, remove, cover and infuse for 10 minutes.
Mix the seeds from the half vanilla pod into the cream. Whip with the 200 g sugar to a softly whipped consistency.
Immerse the babas in hot but not scalding syrup. Turn with a slotted spoon until thoroughly soaked, then drain on a rack.
Brush with apricot glaze, split each baba and pour over rum to taste. Serve with the vanilla cream; on Portuguese counters, chantilly commonly sits in the cake's centre.
Sources for this recipe
The quantities and method were checked against the references below. Family recipes may vary; where no single official formula exists, we present a representative practical version and say so plainly.
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