Baba - famous neapolitan dessert

For most of European people this dessert is not new: the majority of Russians sure that they invented rum baba; ask Neapolitans  - and they will convince you that baba is a typical south Italian delicacy.

But the legend says that this dessert has the polish routes and was invented at the beginning of XVIII century. Actually, this invitation happened more than occasionally!

Legend says, that the polish king Stanislaw Leszczynski disliked the traditional polish dessert “Kugelhopf” being sure that its’ paste is too dry and unleavened. To strengthen the taste, the king put the pieces of Kugelhopf into the dessert wine and even gave the name for his discovery: “Ali-baba”, in honor of “Thousand and one nights” personage.

Later the king was deposed, he found his haven in France and immediately felt a great interest from Parisian bakers in his fresh gastronomic idea. The recipe was modernized  - there was no more mix with dessert wine, but with the rum syrup; the name was modified to short-cut title “Baba”.

Thanks to French chief cooks, who often worked for honorable Neapolitan families, the recipe spread immediately all over southern Italia. And what is the first rule of Naples? No economy on tasty things! May be for this reason the best baba i have ever tried was 100% in Naples!

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