Persimmon and Orange Baba

How to make rum baba

I don’t know if I remember the first time I had a rum baba but I feel like it was probably over 25 years ago. Pastries, like most other foods have crossed borders over the years depending on which country conquered which, or borders another country, or along the trade routes. I feel like the Latin countries ( my wife home country of El Salvador) have their version of pan “borracho”. The Italians have the rum baba. The Caribbean have their version of rum cake along with loads of other countries including ours. Because persimmons are one of my favorite fruits and I wanted to make some sort of bread with them I decided to incorporate it into the baba dough. I had never done this before but I thought it should work out just fine and it did. I would say that the flavor of the persimmon wasn’t overwhelming, the orange was a little more predominate, but nevertheless it was still delicious. Here is the recipe i hope you enjoy it!

Recipe Ingredients
Baba Dough

3 1/3 cup flour

3 eggs

1 stick of butter room temperature

2/3 cup milk (divided)

1 persimmon (pureed)

4 tbsp sugar

2 1/2 packets yeast

1 tsp salt

2 tsp of vanilla bean paste

1 orange zested

1/4 tsp of nutmeg

Sabayon

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup of champagne

1/2 cup of sugar

1 orange zested and splash of juice

Orange rum syrup

2 1/2 cups of orange juice

1/2 cup of water

1/3 scant cup of rum (or more if you like it really strong)

1 scant cup of sugar

1 persimmon cut into small pieces

2 tbsp of anise hyssop flowers

Recipe Instructions

How to make baba dough, Preheat oven to 400

Take the milk and warm to 95 degrees and mix in the yeast. In a stand mixer or a bowl add flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and orange zest. Mix well. Then make a well and add your eggs, vanilla, persimmon, and milk-yeast mixture. Mix well until the dough forms ( you might need a touch of flour if the dough is extremely wet. Then cover and allow the dough to rise for about 2 hours. You can deflate or punch down the dough and then using a dough hook on your stand mixer stir in the softened butter until completely incorporated. Then in buttered baba molds (popover will work) fill the molds up to 3/4 high. Then cover and allow them to rise another 45 minutes. Turn down the oven to 350 degrees and place the baba’s into the oven. Bake for roughly 20 minutes until golden brown. Take out and cool.

How to make orange syrup,

Place all the ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer for 7 minutes. The turn off and allow to cool. Once cooled, place your baba’s into the syrup. Turn the baba’s every 10 minutes or so if they aren’t submerged in the syrup. Allow to soak in the syrup for at least 2 hours. Feel free to add a little more rum here if you like it strong tasting

How to make Sabayon,

Place egg yolks, sugar, zest, juice, and champagne into a stainless steel bowl.  Place over a double boiler or a pot with a little water in it simmering.  With a whisk continuously stirring, whisk the egg yolks mixture until they are thick and a airy but not scrambled (should take a few minutes to thicken).  Take the bowl off the heat.  Adjust the seasoning if need be.

How to make Orange Baba,

Simply make a small cut in the middle of the baba making sure not to go all the way down to the bottom. Generously spoon over the sabayon into middle and on top of the baba. Then place a little of the syrup onto the plate. Place the baba on top of the glaze. Add the persimmon pieces and anise hyssop. Serve and enjoy!