Savarin Recipe
Savarins are basically ring-shaped babas, though the hole in the middle provides more opportunity to fill and top them. Combine filling and/or topping with a creative soaking syrup and you can see where the simple savarin can quickly start to take on some rather complex and/or sophisticated flavors. Here’s the basic early summer fruit version, but feel free to improvise as you see fit. I probably will!
For the dough:
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 envelope) instant yeast
9 ounces (1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 ounces (1/2 cup minus two tablespoons) whole milk
3 eggs
2 1/2 ounces (5 tablespoons) softened butter
Put all the dry ingredients in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle (beater) and stir on low to combine. Add the milk and turn the machine up to medium, then the eggs one at a time and continue stirring until the eggs have been incorporated. Keep beating on medium for about 4 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. With the machine running, add the butter about a tablespoon at a time, kneading until it’s all incorporated. Cover the dough lightly with plastic wrap and let it rise about 15 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 400. Butter your mold(s) and put in the dough (this recipe will make two large 9-inch, six 5-inch, or about a dozen 2-3-inch individual savarins). Let the dough rise 30-45 minutes or until almost doubled in size. Bake about 12 minutes if making smaller, individual savarins, a large one about 30 minutes or until done (a sharp knife inserted into the center should come out clean). Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on a rack.
To Finish:
1 recipe simple syrup, spiked with a fruit liqueur or a fruit purée or your choice
1 recipe Chantilly cream
Seasonal fruit of your choice
This sounds delicious, and after perusing google images for the typical final product, I have to ask- could one substitute a bundt pan for baking rather than the standard ring pan? It’s not so much a cost issue but of adding another lesser used item to my already small kitchen.
You certainly can, Kirsten!
– Joe
Magnifique! A Savarin with rum in the syrup would be similar to a rhum baba. The answer to my rum cake woes! Merci beaucoup
Monsieur Pastry!
Eva
Hey Eva!
Glad to hear that! By the way I found the email I sent you last week. It went like this:
Hi Eva!
Yes, there are a lot of recipes like that around. People fear cakes so they retreat to the “semi-home-made” thing. There’s really nothing wrong with the pudding mix in principle. The corn starch and milk solids make the cake tender, and the sugar and vanilla add flavor. It’s a decent solution for people who rarely bake and have none of even the most basic ingredients around. Still I’m with you that there’s something sort of unsavory about mixing mixes. It feels so cheap and dirty. But a rum cake is really a very easy thing: just your average yellow bundt cake spiked with rum. This one looks like a good representation of the genre:
http://www.gracehillbandb.com/2012/05/cake-butter-rum-cake/
I like that idea of a chopped walnut topping on a rum cake, so I’d be tempted to sprinkle about a cup of them into the pan before you started to mix. But that’s up to you!
Thanks so much for all the very kind words…I love what I do and I’m grateful the blog is so useful to so many people.
Cheers and thanks!
– Joe
Wonderful! Now I have two recipes to try. I will let you know how they go. I think I have enough rum left to make them both! Thank you so much for the help!
Eva
Kirsten T, a Bundt pan is ideal, and you can make larger savarins 🙂
Although as Joe is sure to point out, they are addictive, and one a day is the legal limit
In New Zealand maybe. Here in the States we don’t have a bag limit on savarins. Once the season opens, it’s a free-for-all. At least at my house.
– Joe
Very interesting, another new item to look forward to. I happen to have a Savarin mold, although I’ve never used it for its intended purpose. There’s a coffee cake I make quite often that I love to make in this mold, and the center hole is perfect for a small vase of flowers so it makes a lovely presentation. I look forward to making an actual Savarin in it. (I have plenty of rum!)
Yo ho ho!
I’ll look forward to your critique! 😉
– Joe
I had to go look at a mold to see how close it matches the easy to find coffeecake pan that I love using for coffeecakes as well as standard bundt cakes because it makes such easy slicing unlike the more awkward wedges of cake if the pan has much shape. Pretty close. Just a bit deeper and more square at the bottom. I have a small silicone mold I bought years ago but never got around to making the savarins. Might be time to give that one a try!
Indeed!
– Joe
will have a go now I have bought the tin sounds lovely
Give me a full report!
– Joe
Hi!
Love your blog! Definitely a new fan of yours! I wanted to know where can I purchase the molds?? I want to try making these!!
Thanks!
Thanks very much, Lydine! Great to have you aboard!
Savarin molds can be had from most baking supply houses. They aren’t expensive at all, just do a google search and you’ll find several outlets. I think even Amazon has them.
Cheers,
– Joe