Babas au Rhum

All my plans for choux and frasiers went out the window when I read Tartelette's post on babas au rhum. The combination of citrus, cardamom, and rum captivated my imagination immediately. I'm quite fond of rum, and we just happened to have nearly a full bottle of dark Bacardi, so I took it into my head to make a batch.

Now, I have practically no experience with French pastries. The only "French basic" that I'd attempted before today was génoise cake. That generally turned out well when I made it, but there was always a high chance I'd forget to add the butter at the end. So, trying my hand at another basic recipe, babas au rhum (or pâte á babas to be more specific) was definitely going to be an adventure.
Let me just say that it was nerve-racking. I'm terribly unfamiliar with the methods of the French pâte, and at each step of the way I was constantly fretting, "O! but what if it's too wet? What if it doesn't rise properly?" In the end, it turned out rather well for a first attempt, I think, but there's most definitely room for me to improve. Patience, perhaps, during the rising would be a good place to start. I always say that the two things I don't like about baking are the waiting and the fact that if you screw up there's no fixing it. The waiting was definitely the worst here. The first rising is long enough that you can prepare the compote and the syrup and still have time to spare... Thank goodness for trashy fantasy novels! I'd get all squirrelly otherwise.


Citrus and Cardamom Babas au Rhum

(I'm writing the instructions as I followed them. One of the difficult things here was the measurements by mass rather than volume, and since my kitchen scale is not particularly accurate I decided to double-check based on volume. I've noted the conversions here for the most part, except where it comes out to a fraction you can't measure with standard equipment.)

Babas:
3g (≈ 3/4 tsp) instant dry yeast
20g (≈ 2 Tbsp) warm water
5g (≈ 1 + 1/4 tsp) sugar
100g (≈ 12 Tbsp 2 + 1/2 tsp) flour
2g salt (≈ a dash) salt (unless you're the kind of person who has a measuring spoon for "dash," in which case it's ≈ 5 dashes)
1 large egg (yaye no metric!)
60g (≈ 1/4 cup) milk
40g (≈ 3 Tbsp) melted and cooled butter
50g Citrus Compote (recipe follows)

• Dissolve the yeast and sugar in water to proof
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the egg and milk
• Using the paddle attachment, mix the yeast, flour, butter, and salt into the egg mixture
• Mix until combined and you have a soft dough (This was the first pitfall. When you first mix the ingredients, you get a sort of batter, which begins to come away from the sides of the bowl with mixing. Child (who I really should have consulted before I began) writes that you should have a true dough, rather than a batter. Perhaps I should have beaten the mixture longer? In any case, it became rather more doughy as it was left to rise, and it did rise properly)
• Let rise until doubled in volume. As Child says, this takes anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours
  

Meanwhile, butter the molds you will use (I used large muffin tins), and prepare the compote and syrup.

Compote:
100g (≈ 1/2 cup) sugar
100g (= 100 mL) water
100g mixed citrus (I used most of a navel orange and a little more than half a lemon, plus the zest of both)
6 cardamom pods

• Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat
• Cook 2 minutes
• Let cool, then remove the cardamom pods
• Purée the compote until smooth

Syrup:
100g (≈ 100 mL) orange juice
100g (≈ 100 mL ≈ 3.5+ oz) rum (I used dark rum)
70g (≈ 5 Tbsp + 2 tsp) sugar

• Bring ingredients to a simmer and cook until sugar is dissolved
• Cool to room temperature

When the first rising is complete,

• Preheat oven to 400°F
  
• Add the compote to the dough and fully incorporate. The mixture will be quite liquid (which was rather worrisome to me. Would it rise properly? I wondered. It did)
  
• Fill each mold halfway with the mixture
• Allow to rise until doubled in volume (I may have jumped a little early here...)
• Bake for about 15 minutes (I went for a full twenty because when tested with a toothpick they kept looking like they were underdone...but I ended up carbonising their sorry little asses. I may have needed to use a slower oven, maybe around 375, to cook them more evenly)
• Cool on a wire rack
• When cooled, set the molds in hot water, and free the babas from their buttery prisons!
• Place the syrup in a shallow pan or plate
• Allow the babas to imbibe the syrup, first face down, then right side up, for a total of one minute
• Refrigerate the babas, covered, until plating time
• Serve with syrup

I definitely needed to use more cardamom in this recipe. The tartness of the citrus overpowered the spice. While the cake itself was rather tart, once it had imbibed the syrup it had a very pleasant and balanced flavour. It was sweet, tart, and mellow, with a whiff of alcohol. The cake was moist, and its outermost layer was pleasantly soaked with syrup. While these definitely could have suffered to bulk up a bit, either through longer rising or deeper molds, I'd have to say this was a successful first attempt.