Recipe no. 445 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 206.
Ingredients
- Flour, 500 grams
- Yeast, 30 grams
- Water and lukewarm milk, half and half
- Softened butter, 200 grams then 100 grams
- Eggs, 2 then 10
- Sugar, 100 grams
- Salt, two good pinches
- Rum, a glass
- Corinth and Smyrna raisins, a handful
- Candied orange and lemon peel, in small dice
Preparation
- Preparing the starterTake a third of the sifted flour to make a starter with the yeast and half water, half lukewarm milk, softer than for the brioche, and let it rise in a warm bowl.
- Kneading the base doughArrange the rest of the flour into a well, put in the middle the softened butter then two eggs, work to give the dough body.
- Adding the eggsAdd ten more eggs, two at a time, as the dough becomes light and smooth.
- Completing the doughAdd the second portion of softened butter, the sugar, the salt and the rum, work well, then mix in the starter.
- Letting risePut the dough in a bowl and let it rise as for the brioche.
- Filling and mouldingWhen ready to use, add the raisins and the candied peel, fill the buttered moulds a third of their height and let rise to the level of the mould.
- Baking and soakingBake in a lively oven for a dozen minutes, then unmould and soak in a syrup with rum or kirsch.
Reboul's text
Sift 500 grams of flour, take a third of it to make a starter as for the brioche, but with 30 grams of yeast and half water, half lukewarm milk. This starter should be a little softer; put it in a warm bowl and let it rise; meanwhile arrange the rest of the flour into a well. Put in the middle 200 grams of softened butter, that is to say not too firm, then 2 eggs; work well to give the dough body, add 10 more eggs, but two at a time and as the dough becomes light and smooth. When all the eggs are worked in, add another 100 grams of softened butter and 100 grams of sugar as well as two good pinches of salt and a glass of rum; work it well, mix in the starter and put it in a bowl to let it rise like the brioche dough. When ready to use this dough, add a handful of Corinth and Smyrna raisins mixed together and the same amount of candied orange and lemon peel cut into small dice. The dough is put into buttered moulds filled only a third of their height, left to rise to the level of the mould and pushed into a lively oven; a dozen minutes are enough for small babas.
Once baked and unmoulded, they are soaked in a syrup flavoured with rum or kirsch, as preferred.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| farino | flour |
| levaduro | yeast |
| iòu | eggs |
| sucre | sugar |
| sau | salt |
| roum | rum |
| sirop | syrup |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 445, page 206. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.