BABA AL LIMONCELLO
The French and Italians share their love of babas — little yeast cakes soaked in syrup and laced with liquor. Rum used to be the spirit of choice but Limoncello is gaining momentum. In Compania, we saw mini babas everywhere packed in jars of Limoncello syrup — but homemade ones are better.
Babas:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 tbsp quick rise instant dry yeast 2 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp. kosher salt finely grated peel of one lemon 2/3 cup butter, melted and cooled (warm to the touch but not hot) 3 eggs
Syrup:
2 1/2 cups water 1/2 cup lemon juice 1 1/2 cups sugar peel of one lemon peel of 1/2 orange 3/4 cup limoncello additional limoncello for drizzling lightly sweetened whipped cream
1. Place flour, yeast, sugar, salt and finely grated lemon peel in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk ingredients together for one minute.
2. On medium speed, using the paddle, slowly beat in butter. Beat in eggs one at a time and then beat mixture about 5 minutes. Dough should be smooth and a bit sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 45 minutes. Don’t worry if dough doesn’t double in size but it should look smoother and puffed.
3. Stir dough down and scoop (an ice cream scoop works well) into 12 buttered muffin pans. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place 30 minutes.
4. Bake in a 350F oven for 20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Turn out onto a cooling rack and cool about 2 hours to overnight. (The staler the babas, the more syrup they will absorb.)
5. Make syrup by combining water, lemon juice, sugar and peel in a medium sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook gently 5 minutes. Cool 20 minutes. Strain into a deep bowl. Add Limoncello.
6. Drop a few babas into the syrup and turn over and over about 2 minutes. Place on a rimmed plate. Repeat until all the babas have been soaked. Spoon extra syrup over babas or save to serve with them.
7. To serve, cut babas in half and fill with whipped cream. Pour any extra syrup on top and/or pour a little extra Limoncello on, too.
makes 12 servings