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:
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.
Babà al Rum: A Delicious Dessert with A Fascinating Journey, some facts and Legends
If you travel to Naples, one dessert you must try is the iconic Babà al rum. Neapolitans proudly claim it as their own—yet the dessert’s true origins stretch far beyond the Bay of Naples.
Freshly soaked Babà al rum served with poached pears and homemade custard.
Recently, while searching for my Moulinex at the back of a cupboard, I unearthed several rarely used baking moulds, including classic baba and savarin tins. It was the perfect excuse to revisit this legendary dessert.
What Exactly Is a Babà or a Savarin?
A Baba au rhum (French spelling) is a rich yeast cake made with eggs, flour, milk and butter, then soaked in an aromatic rum syrup. It is often served with pastry cream.
A Savarin is a larger, ring-shaped cake made from a similar dough. It is soaked in syrup and typically filled with pastry cream, Chantilly cream or fresh fruit—and sometimes enriched with raisins or sultanas.
In Naples, babà are often shaped into small mignons, but savarin-style babà are also popular.
Inspiration from the Kitchen
My partner has been experimenting with sourdough and fresh yeast. When he arrived home with an excess supply of yeast, I suggested rum babà—simple to make and wonderfully rewarding.
He researched techniques on YouTube and found demonstrations by Italian pastry chefs. One video showed a chef dramatically pinching and twirling the dough to “flick” it into moulds. Another featured Chef Rita, who shared her own interpretation of the dessert’s origins—an entertaining blend of fact and legend.
The Legends: Poland, France… and Ali Baba?
According to Chef Rita’s version, a Polish sovereign once hurled a dry cake across the table, striking a bottle of rum. The cake absorbed the liquor, filling the room with an intoxicating aroma. Delighted, he asked his cooks to perfect this rum-soaked dessert—and named it Ali Baba after the book he was reading, A Thousand and One Nights.
The story continues: when the king was later exiled to France, local chefs refined the recipe, and only when it reached Naples was the “Ali” dropped, leaving simply baba.
Amusing as this tale may be, culinary historians offer more grounded accounts.
A More Likely History of the Rum Babà
Several more reliable sources trace the origins to Eastern and Central Europe:
Babka, a tall, cylindrical yeast cake, is traditional in Poland and Ukraine; the word babka is related to baba, meaning “grandmother.”
Similar cakes exist throughout Eastern Europe, including the Gugelhupf of Alsace-Lorraine.
King Stanislas Leszczynski of Poland, exiled to France in the 1700s, likely introduced babka to French pastry kitchens.
He may have moistened dry cakes with Hungarian sweet wine—or rum—to improve their texture.
His daughter’s pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer, refined the recipe and later opened Patisserie Stohrer in Paris, where the modern Rum Baba became famous.
Variations evolved: some with brioche dough, some with raisins, some without.
Larousse Gastronomique credits a Parisian master baker with shaping the dessert into a ring and naming it after the gourmand Brillat-Savarin—a name later shortened to savarin.
Food historian Alan Davidson also confirms that Parisian bakers in the 1840s experimented extensively with the recipe.
Eventually, the French version reached Italy, and Naples made the dessert its own.
Recipe: Homemade Rum Babà (or a Small Savarin)
This recipe makes 6 babà and one small savarin, or 8 small babà.
Ingredients
220 g flour
12 g fresh yeast
Pinch of salt
50 g sugar
2 eggs
70 ml milk
100 g butter
Method
Dissolve yeast and a little sugar in warm milk in a mixer bowl. Allow to froth (about 5 minutes).
Mix in 25 g of flour and let rise until doubled.
Once the dough has risen, slowly start mixing the dough and gradually add the remaining flour, sugar, salt in a bowl and then add eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
Progressively add butter and beat it until the dough then increase speed to high speed and beat it until it is smooth and glossy and begins to pull away from the bowl.
Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into greased dariole moulds. Let rise until it reaches the top.
Baba dough proving in traditional dariole moulds before baking.
Bake at 180°C until golden.
Cool completely, prick all over with a skewer and store in an airtight container until ready to soak.
Rum Syrup
Most recipes use very sweet syrups, but we preferred this balanced version:
2 L water
400 g sugar
400 ml rum
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ lemon
For the rum syrup, in a saucepan mix water, sugar, lemon zest from1 lemon and juice from 1/2 lemon and over medium heat stir until sugar dissolves, then simmer until syrupy (5 minutes).
Add the rum and gently place the babas in the syrup, turning lightly until soaked through.
Drain before serving.
To Serve
I paired the babà with poached pears and a silky homemade egg custard.
Simple Egg Custard
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp caster sugar infused with vanilla
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp cornflour
400 ml milk
Rind of ½ lemon
1 cinnamon stick
In a saucepan, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and slowly add the flour, salt and a little milk to make a smooth paste – a whisk could be useful. If you do not have sugar that has been infused with a vanilla bean, use a little vanilla essence (not artificial).
Add the rest of the milk and incorporate to dilute the mixture evenly.
Using a vegetable peeler remove the rind in one piece from ½ lemon. Add this to the milk mixture. Add the cinnamon stick.
Use low – medium heat, stir it constantly with a whisk or a wooden spoon and slowly bring it to the boil- the custard should have thickened.
To make a creamier pastry cream, add a few pieces of room temperature butter while the custard is warm. Add a bit at a time, and whisk until well blended.
Cool before using. To prevent a skin from forming, I place a piece of baking paper or butter paper on its surface.
SAVARIN
I decorated it with poached mandarine segments and custard in the middle.
