Rum babas

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 8 babas, you will need:

• 1 125 g flour
• 2 5 g yeast
• 3 ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 5 2 Eggs
• 6 40 g butter
• 7 350 ml water
• 8 200 g caster sugar
• 9 80 ml rum
• 10 ½ vanilla pod
• 11 1 lime
• 12 150 ml Chantilly cream
• Total weight: 1,170 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
50 min.	2 hours 15 min.	30 min.	3 hours 35 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Melt 40 g butter in a small saucepan and leave to cool.
2	Put into a food mixer bowl: 125 g flour, 5 g yeast, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon caster sugar and 2 Eggs.
3	Knead on slow speed until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
4	Then add the melted butter and continue kneading until this is well mixed in.
5	Gather the dough into a ball, transfer to another bowl and cover with a plastic sheet. Leave to rest for 1 hour.
6	After this time, pat out roughly by hand into a slab 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick.
7	Cut circles out of the dough with a cutter 5 to 6 cm (2 to 2.3 inches) in diameter.
8	Put into proper baba moulds, if possible, or arrange on a baking sheet. Cover with a plastic sheet and leave to rise until doubled in volume (about 1 hour).
9	Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C). Bake for about 20 minutes.
10	Leave to cool on a wire rack. You will see how using proper baba moulds gives the characteristic central well.
11	Prepare the syrup by mixing 350 ml water and 200 g caster sugar. Bring to the boil and remove from the heat. Then add 80 ml rum, ½ vanilla pod and the juice and zest of 1 lime.
12	Trim the rounded bottoms off the babas...
13	...and put the into the syrup. If necessary, pour syrup over the top using a spoon so that they are thoroughly soaked.
14	Place each baba in a ramekin or small dish and fill the centre with Chantilly (whipped cream). Your rum babas are ready to be enjoyed.

Remarks

You can very the flavour of the syrup by using a different alcohol (such as Macvin du Jura, a fortified wine) or fruit. Of course, they will no longer be rum babas, but will still be delicious.

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