Skip to main content

Time for this month's DB challenge




Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious 
cakes! 
 

Savarin

Servings: 8/10
Ingredients
2½ cups (600 ml) (12-1/3 oz) (350 gm) bread flour
2 tablespoons (30 ml) water, lukewarm
6 (320 gm) large eggs at room temperature, separated
½ satchel (1½ teaspoons) (4 gm) instant yeast or 15 gm (½ oz) fresh yeast
4 teaspoons (20 ml) (20 gm) sugar
2/3 stick (1/3 cup) (80 ml) (75 gm) butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) orange and lemon zest (optional)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
¼ cup (60 ml) (2 oz) (55 gm) butter for greasing the work surface, hands, dough scraper & baking pan 
Directions:
Sponge
In a small bowl mix 2 tablespoons (30 ml) lukewarm water, 3 tablespoons (1 oz) (25 gm) flour and yeast , cover with cling film and let rise 60 minutes
Dough
1.After 30 minutes put the egg whites in the mixer bowl and start working with the paddle at low speed adding flour until you have a soft dough that sticks to the bowl (about 2 cups or 270 gm) and work until it comes together , cover with cling film and let rest 30 min
2.Add the sponge to the mixer bowl along with a tablespoon of flour and start mixing at low speed (if you wish to add the zests do it now)
3.When it starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl add one yolk and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
4.Add the second yolk , the sugar and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
5.Raise the speed a little
6.Add the third yolk and the salt and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
7.Keep on adding one yolk at the time and the flour saving a tablespoon of flour for later
8.Mix the dough until is elastic and makes threads
9.Add the butter at room temperature and as soon as the butter is adsorbed add the last tablespoon of flour
10.Keep on mixing till the dough passes the window pane test (I think this is where something went wrong and mine never rose!!)
 
11.Cover the dough with cling film and let it proof until it has tripled in volume 2 to 3 hours.
12.You can prepare the Pastry cream now if you chose to use it, and refrigerate it
13.While you wait prepare your baking pan buttering it very carefully not leaving too much butter on it
14.Grease your dough scraper, your hands and your work surface and put the dough on it and fold with the Dough Package Fold two or three times around (5 folds twice or three times). Cover with cling foil and let it rest 15 minutes on the counter

15.Turn the dough upside down and with the help of your buttered dough scraper shape your dough http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta2_h6Qogp0 in a rounded bun (mine was still a very elastic hardly moldable dough)
 
16.Make a hole in the center with your thumb and put it in the prepared pan
17. Cover with cling film and let rise in a warm spot until the dough reaches the top of the pan about 1 hour
18.Pre-heat oven to moderate 340°F/170°C/gas mark 3
19.Bake the Savarin for about 40 minutes until the top is golden brown
20.Meanwhile prepare the Syrup
21.When the Savarin is done take it out of the oven, let it cool and remove carefully out of the pan

22.You have two choices now : you can immerse it in syrup right now or you can let it dry out (so it will lose some of his moisture that will be replaced by the syrup) and soak it later on.
23.To immerse it in syrup it is a good idea to place it in the mold you baked it in (I’m afraid a spring-form one wouldn’t work for this) and keep adding ladles of syrup until you see it along the rim of the pan. Or you can just soak it in a big bowl keeping your ladle on top of it so it doesn’t float. Once the Savarin is really well soaked carefully move it on a cooling rack positioned over a pan to let the excess syrup drip
24.The soaked Savarin gains in flavor the next day
25.Whatever you decide the day you want to serve it glaze it and fill the hole with your filling of choice and decorate it. You can serve the Savarin with some filling on the side



Judgement:  So mine turned out a bit dense. But the ground cardamom I used in the dough was a great decision- the flavour was intense the next day and it was not actually not bad tasting :) Something I will try again!




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas eve a la B

Science... never solves a problem without creating ten more- Bernard Shaw Merry Christmas y'all!! Kinda late for that but hey the thought is what counts doesn't it? So the 24th evening we had a small get together with great people and even greater food. Lot of Japanese treats and snacks. For the main course we had Pav-bhaji, Rajma and Japanese rice (with radish, bamboo, beets and carrots- I should ask my friend for the recipe, it tasted real good!) . For dessert we had ice cream and an eggless chocolate cake .  I was aiming for a black forest cake but somehow lost my enthusiasm and made a chocolate cake with whipped cream and toasted almond topping. Ingredients 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 can condensed milk 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled 1/2 cup water a pinch of salt 1 tsp almond extract Method Preheat the oven to 360F. Sift the cocoa powder, flour, bak...

Gingerbread house

Oh the warm smell of spices is the hallmark of the holiday season and is the one thing we all love, don't we? GInger is definitely one spice that I love to include in my cooking/baking expeditions during this time of the year. So I was naturally happy to see that this month we were doing the gingerbread house for this month's challenge, well it was a fleeting moment anyway until I realized that it was yet another kitchen mishap. Consider this my 10th new recipe and the 3rd in Nupur's marathon . The December 2009 Daring Baker's challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi . They chose to challenge Daring Bakers' everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book  as the challenge recipes. I used Y's recipe Ingredients 1 cup butter, room temperature 1 cup brown sugar, well packed 2 tablespoons cinnamon 4 teaspoons ground g...

Tried and tasted

  This month on the Tried and Tasted series hosted by Priya , the blog being featured is "Chef in You". It features as one of my daily haunts. Now I am not too fond of mushrooms but this time I let the wise guy pick up some, thought would use it in an omlette or may be even some good fried rice. But a quick search on Chef in you and this recipe was an instant click. So I ordered the wise guy to go for it and he actually made this recipe with minimal help from me. We did not have a few ingredients on hand, so like any good cook I went with my own substitutions which are marked in red. Ingredients , original recipe can be found here 1 1/2 cups chopped button mushrooms 1 onion, chopped 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts 1/2 cup cheddar, grated 2 tbsp grated parmesan 1/4 cup milk ( or replace it with egg) 2-3 tbsp chopped parsley 1 cup panko bread crumbs ( Italina style crumbs with herbs and spices adds more taste) Method In a non stick pan, add little olive oil and saute onions an...