Once upon a time, about 20 years ago when people had dinner parties and cooked for days to prepare a four -five course meal, I sometimes used to make Savarins, 2-3 per time and I kept them in the freezer till I was ready to use them. Savarins took care of the dessert component for different guests on different occasions.
The dough is easy to make.
Savarins and Baba au rhum (as called by the French) are made of the same dough – a rich yeast cake or sponge made with eggs, flour, milk and butter saturated in syrup made with alcohol, usually rum, and sometimes filled with pastry cream.
A Savarin is a bigger version of a baba au rhum, and it is baked in a ring mold (with a hole in the centre) instead of a dariole mold and like a baba, it is soaked in rum syrup .
Although the traditional alcohol to use is rum, there is no reason why other alcohol and liqueurs cannot be used. For example, you could have a good time matching fruit with various types of alcohol:
Citrus flavoured liqueurs , e.g. Cointreau, Grand Manier, Curacao, Mandarino, Limoncello , Strega and Galliano with citrus fruit,
Armagnac with prunes,
Maraschino with cherries,
Bacardi with berries,
Southern Comfort with peaches,
Apricot brandy with apricots etc.
I have three different sized Savarin tins and on this occasion I used the smallest tin:
Placed in the hole in the centre of the Savarin could be one or more of the following: pastry cream, Chantilly creme, poached or fresh fruit.
Raisins, sultanas or currants may be included in the dough.
I decided to soak my Savarin with Cointreau a French liqueur with flavours of of sweet and bitter orange peel.
I poached mandarin segments in some sugar syrup – 2 cups water and caster sugar. I used less than 1 cup, but this depends on how sweet you wish to have the syrup and traditionally the ratio can be 3 cups of water to 2 cups of sugar. Use a little vanilla too – I keep my caster sugar in a large jar with plenty of vanilla pods.
I drained the mandarins from the syrup, added 1 cup Cointreau and used this to soak the Savarin.
This amount of syrup was sufficient for the size of my Savarin. I used the smallest Savarin tin I have =18cm, see photo above.
I kept the Savarin in the tin until i was ready to use it, pricked it all over with a skewer and then added the hot syrup slowly – the Savarin needs to be saturated with the syrup.
Turned it out on a plate.
I warmed a little apricot jam with a tiny bit of Cointreau and glazed the dough. then filled the hole with pastry cream and decorated it with the mandarin segments.
See recipe and information about Baba and Savarins:
Babà al rum, Baba au rhum, Rum Baba and Savarin ; facts and legends
The baked Savarin dough, kept in the mold (baking tin) keeps well in the freezer.
we all have our own way to store foods in our freezers. If you wish not to use plastic, wrap it tightly in a tea towel or in a couple of layers of paper and then place it in a re-purposed plastic bag or glass or metal container (with a nice snug fit) and keep it in the freezer until ready to use it.
