The centuries-old baba recipe made with 96 egg yolks

The baba is often served at Easter in Poland, with the most extraordinary version – the muslin baba – made from a rich dough of flour, yeast, butter and quite a lot of egg yolks.

Depending on where it's baked, the baba or babka takes on many different forms. In the US, it's a braided brioche-like bread that often has chocolate, nuts or other ingredients mixed in. Europeans might be more familiar with baba au rhum, a desert popular in France and Italy that is soaked in liqueur and served in individual portions.

But in Poland, the word "baba" can refer to a variety of baked goods. Some are made in Bundt pans, while others are loaf shaped. Some are more bread-like and use yeast while others more closely resemble pound cake, like the lemon baba I made for my son's birthday. And some, like the potato babka so popular in Poland's Podlasie region, are savoury instead of sweet.

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The typical yeasted baba is often served at Easter and added to the Easter basket brought to church to be blessed, with the most extraordinary version being the muslin baba named for muslin cloth because of its lightness. It's made from a rich dough that contains flour, butter, yeast and a lot of egg yolks – 96 of them for every kilogram of flour.

One food website says to "take a deep breath", as the home version of the muslin baba recipe calls for just 250g of flour, so you will only need 24 egg yolks. By contrast, the Easter baba recipe I usually make contains six egg yolks for 500g of flour (or 12 egg yolks per kilogram), and I already consider that to be a lot.

The original recipe for muslin baba is often credited to the 19th-Century food writer and journalist Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, an extremely popular and successful cookbook writer at the time. I came across the recipe in two other cookbooks: Jak Gotować (How to Cook) by Maria Disslowa, first published in 1931, and then again in Old Polish Traditions in the Kitchen and at the Table (published in 1979) by Maria Lemnis and Henryk Vitry, both pseudonyms of Polish musicologist Tadeusz Żakiej, which provides fascinating insights into the life and traditions of pre-war Poland.

"The cook, the lady of the house and all the women locked themselves up in the kitchen," Żakiej writes. "They sieved the whitest of flours, mixed hundreds of egg yolks with sugar in clay bowls, dissolved saffron in vodka."

This is not the easiest of recipes. It requires long mixing and rising times and keeping an eye on the oven during baking to prevent burning (not to mention having to crack so many eggs). In other words, making baba was serious business.

Some say that the name "baba" (the word for "woman" in Polish) referred to the fact that the dough was finnicky and moody, "just like a woman's temperament". And men weren't allowed into the kitchen during baking as it was thought their presence could lead to a failed, undercooked cake. While the dough was rising, it would be covered in a linen tablecloth and doors and windows were sealed to prevent drafts. After baking, the baba rested on cushions, and because it was thought to be so sensitive until it fully cooled, everyone would whisper because it was believed loud noises would cause it to collapse. Sometimes, after taking the baba out of the oven, the kitchen would be filled with sobbing: "A burned or collapsed baba was a terrible faux pas," Żakiej writes.

But one question remains, why the extreme amount of egg yolks?

"Egg yolks contain lecithin, which acts as natural leavening agent," says Jacek Malarski, the co-founder of Lukullus, a Warsaw-based bakery that sells the 96-egg yolk baba (or as they call it, Baba 96). "Adding a large amount of yolks results in a tender and fluffy texture, and adding an extreme amount of egg yolks results in an extremely fluffy texture, like a cloud."

Because of their high fat content and emulsifying properties, the egg yolks also make the baba last for longer without having to add any preservatives and give the finished product a beautiful golden-yellow colour. 

In the past, serving such a rich pastry was a status symbol. "Fat was more expensive than even the most expensive of meats," says Jarosław Dumanowski, a food historian at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The recipe also calls for 400g of butter for every kilogram of flour, which acts as carrier for the vanilla flavour. Some households even added saffron, one of the most expensive spices. "These were exotic things from far away so that rich people could distinguish themselves from the rest," Dumanowski says.

More like this:

• Poland's famous gingerbread from Torun

• The dumpling that comforts Poland

• Bebinca: a multi-layered egg yolk cake

When Malarski and his partner, Albert Judycki, decided to offer a baba at Lukullus bakery, they tested several dozens of versions, both old and modern, before deciding on a clear winner: the muslin baba. "The muslin baba was beyond compare. It melted in your mouth and remained fresh for longest," Malarski says. They use bourbon vanilla from Madagascar and cover the Baba 96 in homemade lemon glaze. The muslin baba has been making a regular appearance at Lukullus at Easter ever since.

When I ask Malarski about the popularity of this particular baba despite it being so rich and labour-intensive, he replied: "It's the best. If someone tries it, they never want to go back. They miss it too much."

Muslin baba recipe

Adapted from Old Polish Traditions in the Kitchen and at the Table

Method

Step 1

In a heated bain-marie, beat the egg yolks and sugar (what remains after separating out 1 tsp) until white and fluffy. The original recipe calls for half an hour by hand with a whisk but with an electric mixer, 10 minutes should be enough. Set aside to cool. 

Step 2

Heat up the milk until lukewarm and add the yeast, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp flour. Let rest until bubbly, around 5 minutes.

Step 3

Add this mixture, with the remaining flour and vanilla bean seeds or vanilla extract to the egg yolks and sugar and beat for another 10 minutes.

Step 4

Add the melted (but not hot) butter, beat for another 10 minutes, then leave the dough to rest in a warm place until doubled in size. The dough will be loose, more like a cake batter than yeast dough. (You won't be able to knead it, not by hand and not with the dough hook. Even the stretch-and-fold technique, typically used when handling wetter doughs, will fail here.)

Step 5

When it has doubled in size, carefully transfer it to a buttered 4-liter-sized Bundt pan.

Step 6

Allow it to rest in a warm spot until the dough has risen out of the form. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 170C/340F.

Step 7

Carefully transfer the baba to the hot oven and bake for 35-40 minutes but keep a good eye on it as the high amount of egg yolk and sugar may cause it to burn easily. A toothpick inserted into the baba should come out clean. Allow to cool.

Remove from the pan, then decorate with lemon glaze (a mix of lemon juice and powdered sugar to taste), or candied orange peel if you wish.

Notes

* If 24 yolks seems excessive to you, you can halve the recipe and make a smaller baba.

** Some people online have suggested decreasing the amount of yeast to 45g.

BBC.com's World's Table "smashes the kitchen ceiling" by changing the way the world thinks about food, through the past, present and future.

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