The history of babà, the most famous dessert in Naples.

Let's retrace, step by step, the history of this dessert. Although the babà might not be a traditional Italian dessert, it has become a typical sweet of Naples. It is a mushroom-formed dessert made of dough mixed with syrup. Soft and fragrant, it is the most famous Neapolitan dessert in the world. The true story of babà: from its origins, in the cold north, to the landing at the foot of Vesuvius. Raise your hand if you have never sunk your teeth into its soft and spongy crumb! The babà, with its characteristic mushroom shape, is the king of Neapolitan sweets. If you think of babà, in fact, the first word that comes to mind is Naples. Yet the birth of this liqueur delight does not take place at the foot of Vesuvius but in the cold North, precisely in a town French called Luneville, on the border with Germany.

A dessert for a king

The babà was not invented by a master pastry chef, but by a king, or rather, a tsar: the Polish Stanislao Leszczinski, who went down in history not for his impossible political recipes on the future of Europe, but, precisely, for the invention of confectionery. As often happens with the best inventions, the birth of the babà happens by chance. It is rumored that the pretentious sovereign, fond of sweet delicacies, did not particularly like ''kugelhupf'', a typical Polish dessert made with fine flour, butter, sugar, eggs and sultanas. Stanislaus found this dessert, which was served to him two times out of three, too dry and without personality. So one day, when he is served once again, he grabs it and throws it to the other side of the table. The cake bumps into a bottle of rum by chance, spilling it. The liqueur completely soaks the ''kugelhupf'' and under the eyes of the onlookers an extraordinary metamorphosis takes place: the leavened dough of the insipid Lorraine dessert, usually yellowish in color, quickly takes on a warm, amber hue, and an intoxicating scent begins to spread in the dining room. At this point the king, magnetically attracted by the sweet, sinks into the spoon ... and falls in love with it at the first bite. This is a memorable day for the history of pastry: the day of the birth of the babà.

Why is it called babà?

King Stanislaus decides to give his sweet invention the name of Ali Baba, as well as one of the characters of "The Arabian Nights", one of his favorite readings. From Ali Baba to today's Babà, then, the step is short. The babà from Luneville arrives early in Paris, at the Sthorer pastry shop. Here the raisins are removed, butter is added and a brush of apricot jam and voilà ... The dessert changes its name and becomes, more simply,"Babà".

To bring the babà to Naples, where it takes the characteristic form of mushroom or chef's hat, were the "monsù", the French chefs who served the noble Neapolitan families. The Neapolitan pastry chefs rework the recipe making it even softer through the long leavening of the dough. In addition to the classic version of the rum babà of Neapolitan grandmothers, there are many variations. The latest fashion is the babà with limoncello, born in Capri, then there are the coffee babà or the one soaked in bergamot essence, the chocolate babà, with cream, with custard, with fresh fruit, donut-shaped or in a rustic version. But we always prefer it in the classic version. Which is your favorite?