Chef Juliette
Various Almond Preparations
Five almond preparations, one discipline: remove the skins cleanly, dry every kernel through, then cut, toast, or cloak it in pale caramel without letting its fragrant oils escape.
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Pâte à Baba
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2372, Pâte à Baba, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
A butter-rich savarin paste beaten until elastic, then finished with currants, sultanas, and optional Malaga raisins. Fill each mould only one-third, and it rises into a light, fruit-studded baba.
Desserts
French
Dinner Party
Celebration
Special Occasion
35 min
Active Time
20 min cook•2 hr 30 min total
Yield12 small babas (6 dessert servings)
Pâte à Baba (baba dough) teaches the law of enriched yeast paste: build elasticity before the butter and fruit arrive. That is the one true thing to know before you touch the bowl. Flour and egg must first become a springy web strong enough to hold a great deal of butter; rush the structure and the babas bake squat and greasy.
The book assumed a pastry cook who already held Savarin paste in muscle memory, a warm proving cupboard, and rows of individual metal moulds. At home, a stand mixer does the long beating, a draft-free corner supplies gentle warmth, and a deep metal muffin tin stands honestly for the baba moulds. I have halved the brigade formula, weighed the awkward half egg, and kept its defining ratios. The separate Savarin-paste cross-reference was brigade scaffolding, so its method is written out here; adding the currants and sultanas with the sugar at the very end, laying Malaga raisins beneath the paste, and filling each mould only one-third are the dish, and they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When the paste is ready, it turns satiny, elastic, and almost alarmingly soft. Don't stiffen it with extra flour. Beat it until it stretches, add the butter patiently, then trust the one-third fill. If the emulsion goes greasy, stop and chill the bowl briefly. Ça se rattrape. The beating before the butter is the step that decides everything.
The baba family entered French pastry by way of Polish babka and the court kitchens of Lorraine, then found a lasting home in Parisian pâtisserie. Pastry cooks refined it into a porous yeast cake capable of drinking syrup without collapsing, while the ring-shaped savarin became its close relation. This formula preserves a classical distinction often lost at the table: pâte à baba is the fruit-studded branch, with currants and sultanas in the paste and optional Malaga raisins laid in the mould.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
strong white bread flour
Quantity
1⅞ cups (450 ml / 227 g)
unsalted butter
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 113 g)
very soft but not melted
unsalted butter for the moulds
Quantity
2 teaspoons (10 ml / 10 g)
softened
large eggs
Quantity
3 large eggs plus ½ beaten large egg, about ¾ cup (175 ml / 175 g)
at room temperature
whole milk
Quantity
Scant ¼ cup (57 ml / 59 g)
lukewarm
fresh cake yeast, or instant yeast
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 9.5 g) fresh yeast, or 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 3.2 g) instant yeast
fresh yeast crumbled
fine sea salt
Quantity
¾ teaspoon (4 ml / 4.7 g)
superfine sugar
Quantity
2¼ teaspoons (11 ml / 9.5 g)
dried currants
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g)
picked over
sultanas
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g)
picked over
pitted Malaga raisins (optional)
Quantity
24
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| strong white bread flour | 1⅞ cups (450 ml / 227 g) |
| unsalted buttervery soft but not melted | ½ cup (120 ml / 113 g) |
| unsalted butter for the mouldssoftened | 2 teaspoons (10 ml / 10 g) |
| large eggsat room temperature | 3 large eggs plus ½ beaten large egg, about ¾ cup (175 ml / 175 g) |
| whole milklukewarm | Scant ¼ cup (57 ml / 59 g) |
| fresh cake yeast, or instant yeastfresh yeast crumbled | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 9.5 g) fresh yeast, or 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 3.2 g) instant yeast |
| fine sea salt | ¾ teaspoon (4 ml / 4.7 g) |
| superfine sugar | 2¼ teaspoons (11 ml / 9.5 g) |
| dried currantspicked over | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g) |
| sultanaspicked over | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g) |
| pitted Malaga raisins (optional) | 24 |
Equipment Needed
- •Stand mixer with paddle attachment, or a sturdy bowl and wooden spoon
- •12 deep metal baba moulds or a 12-cup metal muffin tin with wells about 150 ml each
- •Digital kitchen scale
- •Wire cooling rack
- •Instant-read thermometer, optional
Instructions
- 1
Prepare fruit and moulds
Butter twelve deep metal baba moulds or the wells of a deep metal muffin tin thoroughly, reaching into every corner. If using the Malaga raisins, place two in the bottom of each mould. Pick over the currants and sultanas, removing any stems, and keep them dry. Do not soak them; extra liquid would loosen a paste whose egg and milk have already been measured precisely.
Metal gives the babas their proper butter-gold sides. Silicone insulates the paste and leaves it pale, so use it only if that is what you have and allow a few extra minutes of baking. - 2
Build the yeast sponge
Warm the milk to about 30°C to 32°C, pleasantly warm against a fingertip but never hot. Dissolve the yeast in it, then mix with ½ cup (120 ml / 57 g) of the measured flour to make a thick sponge. Cover and leave in a warm, draft-free place for 20 to 30 minutes, until visibly swollen and fissured across the surface. If it has not moved after 30 minutes, the yeast is no longer lively; restart this small sponge before committing the eggs and butter.
- 3
Work the base paste
Put the remaining flour and the salt in the mixer bowl, keeping the salt from sitting directly on the sponge at first. Add the risen sponge and begin mixing with the paddle on low speed. Pour in the beaten egg in four additions, waiting until each is absorbed before adding the next, then beat on medium speed for 8 to 12 minutes. The paste will be much softer than bread dough. It is ready when it gathers around the paddle, slaps the bowl, and stretches into a thin elastic sheet before tearing. If it remains shapeless, don't add flour; rest it for 10 minutes, then beat again. The gluten often needs time more than it needs force.
- 4
Emulsify the butter
Add the very soft butter a spoonful at a time with the mixer running on medium-low, letting each addition disappear before the next. Continue beating until the paste is smooth, glossy, and elastic again, about 5 to 7 minutes. If butter begins pooling against the bowl, stop. Ça se rattrape: chill the bowl for 10 minutes, then resume beating without adding flour. The paste has warmed faster than it can form its emulsion, and cooling restores the balance.
The butter should bend as easily as ointment but must not be melted. Soft butter joins the paste gradually; liquid butter is far harder for one cook to control. - 5
Fold fruit in last
Combine the sugar, currants, and sultanas, then add them together exactly at the end, as the source directs. Mix on the lowest speed for only 20 to 30 seconds, just until the fruit is distributed. The sugar may loosen the surface for a moment. That is normal. Stop before the paddle bruises the fruit or tears the elastic structure you have worked to build.
- 6
Mould and prove
Divide the paste among the prepared moulds, about 50 to 55 g in each, but let the mould decide: it must be only one-third full. Smooth the tops with buttered fingertips, cover loosely, and prove at about 24°C to 27°C until the paste has risen to roughly three-quarters of the mould height, 45 to 75 minutes. When it reaches halfway, heat the oven to 190°C, 170°C fan, or 375°F. The paste is ready when its rounded surface trembles slightly and a gentle touch returns slowly. If it approaches the rim before the oven is ready, put the tin in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to slow it down.
- 7
Bake to deep gold
Bake on the lower-middle rack for 16 to 20 minutes without opening the door during the first 12 minutes. The babas are done when their tops are deep butter-gold, their sides pull slightly from the moulds, and the centre reaches about 93°C or 200°F. If the crowns colour too quickly after the first 12 minutes, lay a sheet of foil loosely over them and finish baking; rich dough must be cooked through, not merely browned.
- 8
Unmould and cool
Rest the babas in their moulds for 3 minutes, then turn them onto a wire rack while still warm. The Malaga raisins will now sit visibly on top. If one clings, run a thin knife around the edge and wait another minute rather than pulling at the tender crumb. Cool completely. The finished cakes should feel light and slightly dry, with an even, elastic crumb ready to absorb the syrup chosen for their final service.
Chef Tips
- •Strong white bread flour is the honest home equivalent of the robust flour a pastry kitchen used for this very rich paste. The protein is what lets 227 grams of flour carry 113 grams of butter without collapsing.
- •Weigh the eggs. Three eggs plus half of another sounds fussy until one oversized egg turns this loose paste into batter. Beat the fourth egg first, then measure only what brings the total to 175 grams.
- •True Malaga raisins are large dried muscatel grapes. They are optional in the source, so omit them if they aren't available rather than replacing them with more sultanas and upsetting the fruit balance.
- •This entry is Pâte à Baba, the fruit-studded cake base, not a finished baba au rhum. Syrup, spirits, and serving garnishes belong to the final preparation, so none has been smuggled into a paste that never called for them.
- •No individual baba moulds? Use a deep metal muffin tin with wells around 150 ml each. The shape changes slightly, but the one-third fill and the paste itself remain intact. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.
Advance Preparation
- •The fruit can be picked over and the moulds buttered several hours before mixing. Cover the moulds so the butter stays clean and keep them at cool room temperature.
- •Baked, unsoaked babas may be made up to 2 days ahead and kept airtight once completely cool. A little drying is useful when they will later receive syrup.
- •For longer keeping, freeze the cooled babas in an airtight container for up to 1 month. Thaw them uncovered on a rack so condensation does not make their surfaces sticky.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 100g)
Calories
380 calories
Total Fat
20 g
Saturated Fat
12 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
155 mg
Sodium
360 mg
Total Carbohydrates
40 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
9 g
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