Rum Babà and Beyond

Ciao Amici!

Have you ever eaten a food while on vacation and thought – I’ll never have this at home? This is what I thought for a long time about one of my favorite Italian pastries: rum babà.

I went on a 2-week side gig learning all about the history and various recipes for rum babà. Turns out they do not originate in Italy. They come from Poland, then were brought to France, and found their way to Italy when aristocratic French families brought their personal chefs to Naples in the 19th century.

After all this discovery, I knew the babà needed to be made at home. And so initiated the research for the homemade version, and I wasn’t going to settle for anything short of perfection. After watching several videos and reading a few recipes, I felt confident that the babà could be done. I bought a silicon mold so they would bake in their iconic mushroom shape, this also prevented the batter from sticking to the pan.

The result was a sponge cake that was both delicate and springy. I dunked each one in a bath of water, sugar and rum (not too much rum, just for flavoring) and the babà held their shape!

Light, fluffy and saturated with sweet rum, the babàs required some preparation, but are an amazing way to practice Italian and learn about history. I made this downloadable worksheet so you can have the English version of the recipe I followed along with some essential vocabulary for making homemade rum babà.

I hope you give it a try!

Un abbraccio,

Lisa