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Dish as in the book
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On my first trip to France when I was in my late school years we were all sat in a restaurant when this sponge caked arrived stinking of booze. Most of the group left it completely or took a couple of bites and decided that soggy rum-doused sponge wasn't for them. I, on the other hand, demolished it. It was one of my favourite desserts during my time there and it wasn't until a short while after that I learned the name of the dessert, rum baba.
This dessert is along those lines, Marco claims to have never liked rum baba until a chef by the name of Robert Mey made one on the 'Take Six Cooks' series. This dessert is inspired by the rum baba, a sponge savarin soaked in a stock syrup with Mirabelle liqueur on top of a sabayon scented with kirsch and garnished with Mirabelle glazed raspberries and mint.
The first job is the baba itself, combining warm milk, yeast and flour to create a fermentation before adding flour, egg, sugar and salt, simple enough. Then came a step that I didn't see coming, Marco recommends melting butter, making a well in the centre of the dough (easier said then done when the dough is extremely slack in texture!) and pouring it in, ah well, whatever you say captain! After that, the dough is set aside in a warm place to rise for around an hour and a half.
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Risen dough before butter incorporation
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While the dough was rising I made a start on the Mirabelle glaze. Mirabelle's are notoriously hard to come by in this country but luck was on my side as we've just had some bright yellow Sonogold plums from South Africa delivered into work. Given the similarity in appearance to Mirabelle's I settled on these. Mirabelle is a common word associated with Marco, he bought a restaurant in Mayfair by the same name and even named his daughter after the plums, can't be bad. What is bad however is that Mirabelle liqueur retails at around £35 a bottle so for the sake of 25ml I decided to make do without.
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Check out my plums!
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The book says to place the plums in a solution of water and sugar before liquidizing, a small note here is to take the stones out of the plums before you do this. I've never attempted to liquidize a plum stone but I don't intend to start anytime soon...
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Plums ready for boiling
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After that the plum puree is sieved and reduced by around one third, I had a fair bit of water content in mine so I reduced by half to intensify the flavour and boy was it worth it! Luminous yellow jam was the result of this and will keep in the fridge for a few days.
A standard raspberry coulis is made by whizzing fresh raspberries with sugar and lemon juice before passing through a sieve.
The final preparation was the sabayon which sits under the savarin and acts as a sauce. Whisking egg yolks, sugar and kirsch (I used cherry brandy) over a pan of simmering water while whisking the backside off it produces a thick, creamy custard-like result, keep your eyes peeled for the 'ribbon' stage which confirms your sabayon is ready when the trails of the whisk begin to appear. I instantly cooled the sabayon down by placing the bowl in a sink full of cold water to prevent further cooking before refrigerating.
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Ribbon stage of the sabayon
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| Risen savarins |
All the prep was done, all that was left was to bake the baba's at 220C for 15 minutes which worried me slightly. I'd always baked rum baba's around the 180C mark so fearing a misprint I nervously set the oven for 220C. The dough had risen perfectly and after a quick beating to ensure the butter was correctly incorporated. I then placed the mixture into a piping bag and filled three savarin moulds around halfway with the mix and left to prove for around half a hour.
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| Baked savarins |
I need not have worried about the cooking of the sponges, they came out like a dream, golden brown and so soft, light as a feather. After slightly cooling them they went for a quick dip into a mixture of sugar, water and cherry brandy to soak up the liquid.
Time to plate up and much like the Peach Melba dessert this one followed a similar theme with the berries around the outside garnished with mint leaves, big circle of sabayon in the centre with the savarin sitting on top. I filled the savarin centre with the raspberry coulis, mixed berries and some fresh raspberries and mint on the top, glazing the whole lot with the Mirabelle glaze.
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| The final plate |
Looks nice doesn't it. Well I'm happy to report that it tasted delicious, soft and light sponge with the kick of cherry brandy going into the sharpness of the fruit was awesome. The sabayon is brilliant, having made it before with Marsala wine it doesn't give it the same acidic kick the cherry does, definitely be making that again. The Mirabelle glaze adds a balance to it all with sharp and sweet flavour. Somehow it felt strange that Marco hadn't decided to place a spun sugar basket on top of this but then again why mess with the classics.
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| The verdict |
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