Baba

Ingredients

• half a pound of the best flour
• one drachm of compressed yeast
• half a gill of warm water
• three ounces of powdered sugar
• four raw eggs
• a gill of cream
• half a gill of good Madeira wine
• a drachm of very fine salt
• five ounces of good, fresh, soft butter

Method

1. 1

   Mix flour, yeast, and water, let rise.

2. 2

   Mix remaining flour with sugar, eggs, cream, wine, and salt.

3. 3

   Combine with yeast mixture, let rise again.

4. 4

   Bake until done.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The table (1889) by Alexander Filippini, page 293. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

our ounces of powdered sugar, and seven ounces of fresh honey. Knead the ingredients well for five minutes, then mix in the flour, and knead the preparation with the hands in all directions for fully thirty minutes without ceasing. Finish by forming it into a ball. Lay this on a dish, cover it with a napkin, and place it in a temperature of about 60° for six hours. Lay the paste on a floured table, and roll it out eighteen inches long by twelve wide. Butter well a baking- sheet, lay the paste on top, and put it in a very slow oven to bake for forty-five minutes. Remove, lay the baking-sheet on the table, cutthecake immediately into small pieces, lozenge shaped, one and a half inches long by one inch wide, or any other shape desired; let cool off thoroughly for 350 THE TABLE. about twenty minutes, then dress on a glass bowl, and serve. The above cakes can be glazed with a glace a 1'eau, as for No. 1197, and served the same. 1214. Strawberry Shortcake. — Put into a vessel half a pound of powdered sugar with half a pound of well-washed butter, grate in the rind of half a sound lemon, and, with the hand, mix well for ten minutes. Break in five whole eggs, one at a time, meanwhile mixing for ten min- utes longer, always with the hand. Then add gradually half a pound of well-sifted flour, and mix for three minutes. Cover a baking-sheet with brown paper, place on top three tin cake-rings, nine inches in diameter and one inch high. Divide the preparation equally into the three rings; then place in a moderate oven to bake for thirty minutes. Remove, and allow the cakes thirty minutes more to cool. Lift up the paper, with the cakes, turn it upside down on the table, remove the paper, and detach the cakes from the rings by passing a knife all around. Pick and clean thor- oughly three pints of fine, sound, ripe strawberries; have a dessert-dish with a fancy paper over, lay one of the cakes on top of this, spread over eve-nly two tablespoonfuls of whipped cream (No. 1254), then cover with half the strawberries, nicely and evenly divided. Sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar, then cover with another cake, spread over the same quantity of cream as before, then arrange the other half of the strawber- ries on top; dredge again with powdered sugar, and lay the last cake over all, sprinkling with more sugar. Slide down a tube (No. 2) into a pastry- bag (No. 1079), put into it six tablespoonfuls of whipped cream a la vanille (No. 1254), and with it decorate the top of the cake in an artistic manner, and send to the table. 1215. Blackberry Shortcake. — Prepare and proceed exactly the same as for strawberry shortcake (No. 1214), only substituting three pints of well-picked, and thoroughly cleaned, fine, sound, ripe blackberries for the strawberries, and serving the same. 1216. Baba. — Have ready half a pound of the best flour, one drachm of compressed yeast, and half a gill of warm water. Put three ounces of the flour into a vessel, make a hollow in the centre, and in it lay the yeast and water; with the hands mix the yeast gently with the water for three minutes, then mix all together gradually for three minutes more. Cover the vessel with a towel, and leave it in the warmest place in the kitchen (not on the stove), and after thirty minutes it will rise to twice the size. Lay the remainder of the flour on the table, make a hollow in the centre, putting in it an ounce of powdered sugar and four raw eggs. Mix the sugar and eggs with the hands; then add a gill of cream and half a gill of good Madeira wine. Season with a drachm of very fine salt, and mix all with the flour for five minutes. Make a hollow in the centre again, and into this put five ounces of good, fresh, soft butter

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.