Baba au Rhum

Ingredients

• 250 g strong white bread flour
• 8 g fine salt
• 20 g caster sugar
• 12 g fresh yeast or 5 g dried yeast
• 60 ml warm whole milk
• 4 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 80 g soft unsalted butter, plus extra for the moulds
• 500 ml water
• 250 g caster sugar, for the syrup
• 1 vanilla pod, split
• 1 strip orange zest
• 1 strip lemon zest
• 120 ml aged dark rum, plus extra to serve
• 3 tbsp apricot jam
• 250 ml double cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

Before you cook

• Crumble the yeast into the warm milk with a pinch of the sugar and leave it for 10 minutes until foamy.
• Butter eight individual baba moulds or a savarin ring thoroughly, getting into every crease.
• Bring the eggs and butter out of the fridge so they are properly soft.
• Split the vanilla pod and pare a strip of zest from an orange and a lemon.

Steps

1. Put the flour, salt and 20 g sugar in a stand mixer with a dough hook and add the yeasted milk and two of the eggs.
2. Mix on low for five minutes until you have a thick sticky batter-dough.
3. Add the remaining two eggs one at a time, mixing for three minutes after each until the dough is smooth and elastic.
4. Add the 80 g soft butter in pieces and mix for a further eight minutes, until the dough is glossy and pulls away from the bowl in strands.
5. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise at room temperature for one hour, until doubled.
6. Knock the dough back and pipe or spoon it into the buttered moulds, filling each one halfway.
7. Cover loosely and leave to prove for 45 minutes, until the dough reaches the rim.
8. Heat the oven to 180C fan.
9. Bake the babas for 20 to 25 minutes, until deep golden and firm.
10. Turn them out onto a rack and leave them uncovered for at least two hours, or overnight, so they dry out and can absorb the syrup.
11. Put the 500 ml water, 250 g sugar, vanilla pod and both strips of zest in a wide pan and bring to the boil.
12. Take the syrup off the heat and let it cool to about 60C, warm but not scalding.
13. Stir 60 ml of the rum into the warm syrup.
14. Lower the dry babas into the syrup a few at a time and turn them for two minutes, until they are swollen and heavy right through to the centre.
15. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain them on a rack over a tray.
16. Warm the apricot jam with a splash of water and brush it over each baba for a shine.
17. Whip the double cream with the icing sugar to soft peaks.
18. Serve each baba with a spoonful of cream and pour over an extra measure of rum at the table.