Does the rum baba take brioche?

Abused excessively, overused in mediocre industrial productions, considered as a dessert from another time, the baba au rhum is nevertheless returning to the forefront, after having seen all the colors… A return of hype unexpected, like the one experienced in his time by Stanislas Leszczynski (1737-1766), king of Poland in exile who became Duke of Lorraine having entered Versailles when his daughter married Louis XV. According to legend, this epicurean loved kouglof but found it too dry for his fragile teeth. Its pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer, then had the idea of ​​dipping the famous Alsatian brioche in tokay (then, later, in rum).

Having become court pastry chef in 1725, the latter made his creation known through his shop, which was opened five years later in Paris. A true institution on rue Montorgueil, the Stohrer patisserie has made baba its totem dessert, available today in several forms: individual cork topped with a candied cherry, cake to share or in a jar. Cyril Lignac offers a lighter and fragrant version: a baba dough cooked in a savarin mold then soaked in a lemon, orange, vanilla and rum syrup, topped with apricot and garnished with vanilla whipped cream.

At Nonos, the brasserie of the Hôtel de Crillon, Paul Pairet also gives it back its letters of nobility. Served in a deep plate, it takes the appearance of a generous cork topped with grains of sugar that a waiter comes to flambé in the dining room with an old 100% black cane rum. All that remains is to slice the beast to slip in the whipped cream.