Baba au Rhum, Rum Raisins, Bananas Foster: Desserts with Rum

Baba au Rhum and Savarin: Yeasted Cake in Rum Syrup

A baba is a light, airy yeasted cake that, once baked, is soaked in warm sugar syrup laced with rum until it has absorbed the liquid like a sponge. It's served with whipped cream or vanilla custard, often with an extra splash of rum added tableside. Because the rum never goes back into the oven, nearly all of its alcohol is retained.

There's a legend about its origins. According to tradition, Stanisław Leszczyński, the deposed King of Poland and later Duke of Lorraine, found the Gugelhupf too dry and had it soaked—supposedly naming it after Ali Baba. His pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer, followed Stanisław's daughter Marie to Versailles in 1725 and opened a pâtisserie in Paris in 1730 that still exists today and considers itself the birthplace of the baba. Originally it was soaked in sweet wine from Málaga; according to the house's own account, rum wasn't introduced until the 19th century.

From the baba, Parisian pastry chefs developed the savarin around the mid-19th century, baked in a ring mould and named after the gastronome Brillat-Savarin. In Naples, the babà remains an everyday treat to this day. For soaking, an aged molasses rum or a rhum agricole vieux works well. The rum should only be added once the syrup has cooled slightly, or its aroma will simply evaporate.

Rum Raisins: Steeping, Ice Cream and Kaiserschmarrn

Rum raisins are the simplest rum dessert of all. Just place raisins in a screw-top jar, cover them barely with rum, and let them steep for at least overnight—though a few days is better. They plump up, turn juicy, and take on the taste of rum rather than dried fruit. Well sealed and fully covered, they keep for a long time in the fridge.

In Germany, they're best known as Malaga ice cream. The name recalls the sweet raisins and the fortified wine from Málaga in southern Spain. Sources differ on exactly how rum came to replace wine in the recipe. What matters in practice is something else entirely: alcohol lowers the freezing point, so plenty of rum raisins will make homemade ice cream softer.

In Austria, rum raisins are a staple of Kaiserschmarrn, the torn-up pancake dusted with powdered sugar. There, they're usually soaked in Inländerrum. Punschkrapfen also rely on it—cubes of sponge cake filled with cake crumbs, jam and rum, finished with pink icing.

Bananas Foster: The Flambéed Dessert from New Orleans

Bananas Foster was created in 1951 at Brennan's restaurant in New Orleans. According to the restaurant's own account, Owen Brennan asked his chef Paul Blangé to create a dessert in honor of Richard Foster, then chairman of the city's crime commission. Owen's sister, Ella Brennan, was also involved in the idea. Bananas were an obvious choice, since New Orleans was a major port for bananas shipped in from Central and South America.

Butter, brown sugar and cinnamon melt together in the pan, and halved bananas cook briefly in the mixture. Banana liqueur and dark rum are then added, the whole thing is flambéed, and it's served over vanilla ice cream. A bold, dark rum with caramel notes carries the dessert well, while a Jamaican rum amplifies the banana flavors. Measurements show that roughly three-quarters of the alcohol survives the flambéing process.

Which Rum for Desserts? A Quick Guide

For soaked cakes like baba and savarin, an aged rum with vanilla and caramel notes works best—one that isn't too sweet itself, since the syrup already brings plenty of sugar. For steeped fruit, a rum with real character suits well, whether Inländerrum or an expressive Jamaican rum. For flambéing, a dark rum at 40 to 50 percent ABV is sufficient. Cold creams call for a mild, aged rum without any sharp edges.

Every dessert in this chapter retains a significant amount of alcohol. Baba and rum raisins see no heat at all after the rum is added, and Bananas Foster only for a few seconds. For children, or anyone who'd rather skip the alcohol, the syrup and raisins can be prepared instead with orange juice, black tea or vanilla. Letting guests know what's actually in the dessert is simply good manners.