Probably the most popular story about the invention of baba au rhum has to do with one Stanislas Leszczynski. Leszczynski was a puppet king of Poland, installed in 1704 by the Swedes after Leszczynski’s predecessor, Augustus the Strong, overreached himself trying to boot the Swedes out of the Baltic. He failed and was himself booted […]
READ ONRegular contributor Jim Chevalier writes in to observe:
Just like the croissant and the bagel, one myth goes that the kugelhopf was invented at the siege of Vienna by the Turks. Supposedly in imitation of the sultan’s turban.
I’ve heard a number of stories about baking and battles over Vienna, but that’s new one on me. Guess it’s time to chuck the kugelhopf onto the Battle of Vienna myth heap! Thanks Jim!
READ ONWere the members of The Who closet pastry junkies? Or was this song really named for an Indian guru like they claim? I’ll leave it to you to decide.
READ ONSo at what point did the Central European baba become “baba au rhum?” It clearly had to be during or after the Colonial Era, since there’s no rum without sugar, and the West Indian sugar trade didn’t get going in earnest until about the middle of the 1500’s. But even so it was about another […]
READ ONThat question from reader Cynthia. The answer is that he was a writer and eater who was also part scientist, part physician, part philosopher and part critic. He was, in other words, a man of letters who lived and thrived before modern specialized society put up the barriers that now largely divide the humanities and the sciences. Thomas Jefferson was such a person, as I’ve remarked in the past, which makes it unsurprising that the two knew each another. Jefferson in fact taught Brillat-Savarin how to truss a turkey. But as usual I’m getting ahead of myself.
READ ONWhat’s the difference between the two? reader Laura asks YET AGAIN. So OK, a kugelhopf is a German version of a baba, baked in one large cake. It usually contains candied fruit, nuts and citrus peel and is sometimes iced or covered with powdered sugar. A kugelhopf is similar to a savarin in that its name is derived from the pan it’s baked in. Which is to say, a kugelhopf denotes a shape. And indeed kugelhopf pans are quite distinctive in their appearance, being quite tall with swirled fluting on the sides and top. Beneath those dramatic contours, though, it’s pretty much your classic baba. Happy now, reader Laura??? Sheesh!
READ ONWhat’s the difference between the two? reader Laura also asks. That’s another good question, since the two are closely connected. How are they connected? Well it seems that back in Paris in about the year 1845, a pair of pastry-making brothers by the last name of Julien created a baba that they made in a large, doughnut-shaped pan. It had no fruit in it, however it was soaked in a sweet syrup, the recipe for which was a big secret at the time. They called their masterpiece a “Savarin”, after the late gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.
READ ONWhat’s the difference between the two? asks reader Laura. Since they both originate in the same place, there really shouldn’t be much difference. However a baba is generally recognized as a small, cylindrical cake that may contain candied fruit, and may not be doused in rum syrup. A babka has come to mean something rather different. It’s also made from a yeast-leavened dough, but it’s a single large cake, usually ring-shaped, and usually filled with some sort of candied or dried fruit filling. Or at least that’s how Central European Christians interpret it.
READ ONWhat’s the difference between the two? asks reader Claire. There’s no question that the two are very similar, reader Claire. Both are yeast-leavened and both are quite buttery. However there is a difference between them, and that has to do with how much egg they contain. A typical baba is much eggier, which makes it lighter, more cake like and a good deal more crumbly.
READ ONIt’s a grandmother. Or an old lady. That’s what “baba” means in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish, or so I understand. What does a tall, cylindrical shape have to do with a grandmother? That’s a very good question, for indeed for much of their history, baba molds were extremely tall things. It’s said that in imperial […]
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