Rustic Calabrian Babà, a fabulous leavened bread to make for Easter, the savory bundt cake filled with salami and cheese, a soft and tasty dough, moist and pleasant, perfect to enjoy for Easter appetizers, or even on Easter Monday for the traditional outing. The rustic babà is a filled leavened bread with cured meats and cheese, usually using cooked ham, mortadella or Naples salami; I, being a good Calabrian, had some good homemade aged sausage and wanted to try it with Calabrian sausage and cheese, and maybe I’m biased, but this babà is truly unbeatable for taste. You might wonder how you can bring the same flavor to the table; well, I’ll leave you the Amazon link in the recipe where you can find typical Calabrian products, otherwise use what you’re used to and love, and you’ll surely make a delicious rustic babà.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 4 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 12
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter, Spring, Autumn
Ingredients for Rustic Calabrian Babà
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups Manitoba flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 0.18 oz fresh yeast
- 5 tbsps vegetable or olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 pinch sugar
- 1 oz Parmesan cheese
- to taste black pepper
- 7 oz Calabrian salami
- 7 oz provolone cheese
- butter and flour for the mold
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Bundt cake pan
Preparation Steps for Rustic Calabrian Babà
In a large bowl, begin by placing the yeast with milk and sugar and mix with a spoon.
Then add the all-purpose flour and mix. Once all the all-purpose flour is incorporated, add one egg and mix again. Add a little Manitoba flour and mix, then add the second egg and continue kneading, always mixing with a spoon until the eggs are well incorporated into the dough.
At this point, add the salt, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper, and mix. Then add the remaining Manitoba flour, incorporate it, and finally add the oil, mixing again to obtain a homogeneous dough. Take a 10-minute break.
Meanwhile, prepare a 9.5-inch bundt cake pan greased and floured.
Prepare sausage and provolone cheese cut into cubes. I used half provolone and half Gruyère; if you want, you can also use half sausage and half sopressata, or other cured meats as per Neapolitan tradition with salami and ham or even mortadella.
Resume working the dough, another minute and take another break, repeat a couple of times.
When the dough is well elastic, we can add cured meats and cheese into the bowl and mix well to incorporate the filling into the dough. For better handling, work by hand, either in the bowl or on the work surface.
At this point, transfer the dough into the mold, we can form a ring, and place it in the mold like this, or little dough at a time to form the ring in the pan.
Let rise in warmth for about 4 hours, I do it in the oven with the light on and a pot of boiling water, so there’s no need to cover it and it doesn’t dry with the steam created.
When the dough has risen to the edge of the mold, we can proceed to baking. Remove from the oven, heat it to 356°F static and at that point bake and cook for about 40 minutes, until it’s well golden on the surface.
Remove from the oven, let cool a bit, and then invert on a serving tray, excellent even warm, but usually served cold, it keeps for a week, delicious, perfect even for Easter Monday.
