Rum Babas with Chantilly Cream

Make sure you have all your ingredients measured ready for use. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. In a stand mixer add the flour sugar and salt. Mix lightly with a paddle mixer. Add the eggs.

Then add the milk and yeast mixture at low speed. Knead the dough with either the flat paddle or a dough hook on high speed until the dough has more body and comes away from the sides of the bowl, approx 10 minutes.

Add the soft butter, cut into cubes. Once incorporated, scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in size, depending on the weather, but usually about 45 minutes. Once it has risen, knock it down with the back of your hand.

Place the baba moulds on a baking tray, if you don't have baba moulds you can use a muffin tin or any other type of tin you want. Lightly grease the tin/moulds. Fill the tin/mould with the savarin dough to approx 3/4 of the tin/mould. Leave the dough to rise again until it reaches the top of the tin/mould.

Once risen, glaze the top with egg wash and then bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes. The babs should be puffed up and golden. Remove from the oven and take out of tin/mould and place on wire cooling rack to cool.

Pour water in saucepan, add sugar and bring to boil. Remove from heat when sugar has dissolved.

Add the star anise, strips of orange peel from the orange, vanilla pod and the cinnamon stick. Bring to boil and the lower heat to a gentle boil for about 15 minutes.

The add rum to syrup, add enough to suit your taste. Steep the babas into the hot syrup, they should be thoroughly soaked. Remove from syrup and place on tray and pour a small amount of rum over the babas, let cool.

Whip the cream. Then add the castor sugar and fold through, you can add as little or as much castor sugar to taste. Pipe or spoon the chantilly cream onto the cooled babas before serving. Babas can be refridgerated before serving.