Savarins

A brioche that is soaked in a sweet syrup for flavoring and moisture. The cavity in the middle is filled with piped whipped cream and fresh fruit. The recipe takes a tropical turn with mangoes, papayas and bananas but feel free to pick your favorite fruits to accompany this treat.

Tania

Standard bake and measure
Special ingredients: raspberry purée, mixed berries

Initially, I wasn't looking forward to this recipe. It requires a special mold, and a bunch of tropical fruit? But, after a few adjustments, I was able to make it my own and I'm really pleased with the final result. I found paper bundt molds that would work for this recipe instead of savarin molds. They were bigger than what the recipe called for, so I made two big ones instead of four little ones.

The dough was easy enough to make, very sticky and wet, like a cake batter. I piped in into the molds as evenly as possible, and let it rise. No problems with the yeast this time! After baking for 40 minutes, they were golden brown and spongy. Perfect!

I couldn't find passion fruit purée, so instead I used some raspberries I had in the freezer and puréed them myself. I also added a splash of rum to the syrup, since that's traditionally used in savarins. I made sure to have the syrup at the proper temperature before dunking the cakes. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to let them rest for 2-4 hours as recommended. But after a quick rest, I brushed on the additional syrup and began the assembly. Since I was using raspberry purée in the syrup, I decided to use mixed berries for garnish instead of the mango, papaya, pineapple and lychee recommended in the book. I split the whipped cream and berries between the two cakes. I'm very pleased with how it turned out! The berries are so bright and colorful, and the cake is moist and spongy.

Jenn

metric measure, convection bake 15-20 minutes

6 mini savarins (2.5"), 2 savarins (5")

The savarin is one of my favorite French pastries. It's similar to the baba au rhum but I much prefer the citrus in the savarin over rum. I had a couple of issues with the recipe so it didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. I mixed the dough by hand, which the actual task I don't mind but I don't have much of an arm so I'm not sure how well I kneaded it. Second, I don't think the yeast did much because the savarins were a bit dense. 

The flavorings however, were spot on. I didn't have passionfruit puree so I used my favorite citrus syrup recipe that has both orange and lemon for flavor. I used fresh mangoes for the filling. I will have to give this recipe another try using the mixer and maybe activating the yeast separately first before adding to the dough. Full write up on my blog: http://www.deliciouslynoted.com/2013/10/bouchon-bakery-savarins/

Guest Baker: Jo Wong

It's delicious! Who would of thought a brioche bread soaked in passion fruit syrup would make such a delicious cake!  Ours was a texture of soft sponge cake. Couple of lessons learned, do switch out the paddle attachment for the dough hook to incorporate in the melted butter, and wait until the butter has incorporated into the dough before adding more.  I let the dough overnight in the refrigerator, and extended the final proofing time to 2 hours before they were ready to be bake.

I made a double batch so I could make a batch of small savarins baked up in a donut pan and one large savarin in the 9" savarin ring pan. They all turned out great! We served ours with pineapple, strawberry and kiwi.