|
Downtime Food and Wine Baba au rhum et aux fruits de saison
| Baba au rhum et aux fruits de saison |
|
|
| Tuesday, 18 November 2008 | |
|
Time for some tropical warmth
For the syrup:Despite being best served chilled, boozy Babas warm the cockles, especially when endowed with tropical and citrus fruits, which are at their best right now. Don’t let the length of this recipe put you off – it is actually a very easy process, with extremely rewarding results. 
Ingredients
Serves 6: • 75ml warm milk • 2 sachets or 14g yeast • 1 tbsp sugar • 2 large eggs • 130g flour • 75g softened, unsalted butter • 500ml water • 270g sugar, either demerara or a mix of demerara and wonderful soft muscovado • 150ml dark rum • Optional zest of an orange • Optional squeeze of lemon juice. For the topping: • Thick crème fraîche d’Isigny • Whichever fruit is in season, and looks and smells best. At the moment, that could be pineapple, clementines, orange, grapefruit, kiwi, mango, banana and passion fruit – basically, citrus plus anything that grows in the sun-soaked places where rum is produced! Carefully cut the fruit into thin pieces, so that they look pretty. The pineapple slices in the photo were also fried in butter. Equipment: • 6 individual baba/savarin moulds, or 1 large one, greased with butter. If you don’t have either of these, you can use muffin or other cake tins. What to do: • Heat the oven to 200°C. • Mix the milk, sugar and yeast together, and leave until the yeast and sugar are dissolved, and the liquid is starting to bubble. • Pour the milk mixture into a mixing bowl, and add the eggs, butter and flour. Mix with a wooden spoon, until smooth. • Half-fill the mould or moulds with the batter, cover with cling film or a tea towel, and leave in a warm place, until the mixture has doubled in size – about 30 minutes. • Bake for 20 minutes or until starting to brown. • Meanwhile, make the syrup, by boiling the sugar and water together for a couple of minutes. Add any zest or juice and leave to cool for a while before adding the rum. • Once the babas are cool enough to handle comfortably, prick them all over, with a skewer or similar, and dunk them in the syrup for a few seconds each. Put them on a big dish, pour over more syrup, and leave in the fridge to chill, for at least a couple of hours. • Serve on small plates. If using veritable baba moulds, fill the cavities with crème fraîche. If not, the cream can be served at the side or on top of the babas, after the fruit. Decorate each one with the fruit, and pour over a little more syrup just before serving. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
| French are less pessimistic! |
| According to the monthly opinion poll BVA the economic confidence index among French people has increased for the second month running. | |
| Read more... |
| Battle rages to control Socialist party |
| The French Socialist party is locked in a fierce procedural struggle to establish clearly who won last Friday’s election for the post of Secretary-General. | |
| Read more... |
| Ségolène by a whisker? |
|
The French Socialists know they will be led by a woman. They will not know until tonight which one. The result will be very close. |
|
| Read more... |
| Simone Veil achieves immortality. |
| The 81 year old lawyer and politician has been elected at the first attempt to the ranks of the Académie Française known to the French as' les Immortels'. | |
| Read more... |
