Dinner for French men - a rum baba

Yesterday evening, for reasons that you don't need to worry about, I found myself preparing supper for four of my favourite men.  My husband was present (don't get concerned) , along with three other good friends.

When deciding on my man's menu, the course that gave me the most thought was dessert.   What is a man's dessert?  I finally opted for a great French classic that everyone loves, but not many make at home Le Baba au Rhum.

I used to make babas quite often, so I dug out my recipe and was relieved to see that it's really pretty easy.

 what you'll need

For the dough
2 x7g sachets dried quick acting yeast
1 1/4 cups / 125g ‘00’ flour
1 1/4 cups / 125g plain flour
pinch salt
3 tsp castor sugar
4 medium eggs, room temp, very important
50mls warm milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
75g melted butter

For the syrup
120g sugar
190g water
50g dark rum

To serve
very lightly whipped double cream
vanilla extract
icing sugar

I made it easy for myself by using an electric mixer, the oven was pre-heated to 190°C, gas 5.

I put the yeast, flours, salt, sugar, eggs, milk into the mixer and  beat well for several minutes until very soft and sloppy.  Added the melted butter and mixed again.  At this stage I unscrewed my mixer bowl from the machine and sat it on top of a radiator until the mix had doubled in size.  Yesterday this took about 30 minutes.

I beat the proved mixture really well again then poured it into the mould.  Purists will use 8 - 10  individual brioche or dariole moulds.  I don't have those, so I poured my mix into a well buttered long rectangular cake mould that I lined with greaseproof or wax paper.  I covered with  foil and placed back on the radiator until it doubled in size again.

Once it had risen I uncovered the dough and carefully put it bake for about 15-20 minutes (this cooks faster in the smaller moulds).  Once the brioche was lightly browned on the top I gently eased it out of the mould and lay it on the wax paper on the baking shelf of the oven for another 10 minutes, so the sides could colour too.

While the cake was baking I had time to make the rum syrup.  Easy!  Simply put the rum, sugar and water into a small saucepan and gently warm on the cooking hob.  Once all the sugar is melted turn up the heat and simmer for a few minutes without letting the syrup thicken.  Put to one side.

The brioche or cake must be nice and dry and well coloured.  While it is still warm but not really hot, I poked holes all over with a large skewer, then poured the rum and sugar syrup in little by little until all the syrup has been absorbed by the cake.  Don't get nervous about this, it's amazing how the cake absorbs this quid, yet doesn't become soggy.  In fact when making individual babas you can even lay them into the syrup and let them soak it in!

You can make this dessert hours ahead of the meal, some people even pop theirs in the fridge - warm or cold is a matter of preference, either way it's delicious.

To serve I like to offer some sweetened whipped cream, along with a jug of extra and slightly thicker sugar syrup and another jug of rum.

The top photo I borrowed to show you the individual babas; here is a picture of mine, served in slices.

Bon appetit