Name: Baba au rhum, crème Chantilly
Yield: Makes 12 babas; the accompaniments serve 4
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 200 g (7 oz/1 cup) very sweet pineapple (roughly half a pineapple), cut into 1cm (½ in) cubes; 50 g (1¾ oz/4 tbsp) sultanas (golden raisins); 1 tbsp icing (confectioners’) sugar; 200 ml (7 fl oz/1 scant cup) whipping (heavy) cream; drop of vanilla extract; 200 g (7 oz/2 scant cups) T45 flour (use plain (all-purpose) flour if you can’t get hold of it); pinch of salt; 2 tsp clear honey; 4 eggs; 70 g (2 oz/4 tbsp) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing; 1½ tsp fresh yeast; ½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped; pared zest of 1 orange; 500 ml (16 fl oz/1 pint) water; 400 g (14 oz/1¾ cups) caster (superfine) sugar; 100 ml (3½ fl oz/⅓ cup) water; 100 g (3½ oz/⅓ cup) caster (superfine) sugar; pared zest of 1 lemon; 50 ml (3 tbsp) dark rum

Preparation info

Makes 12 babas; the accompaniments serve
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Classic Koffmann

By Pierre Koffmann

Published 2016

About

It’s quite funny how food has fashions – why should tastes and flavours follow any kind of trend? – but alongside the likes of devil’s food cake and prawn cocktail, this French brasserie classic has now been assigned ‘retro’ status in the UK, in other words, it’s slightly unfashionable. That’s a shame as I think these individual little boozy cakes make a fine and elegant finale to a meal and I still often put them on the menu at Koffmann’s.

Babas need to be very moist – they should