Cinnamon baba with spiced pears (or Le Savarin)

Can you imagine a dessert when eaten it magically explodes in the mouth with cinnamon flavor, the sweetness and freshness of the cool syrup?



That's the baba, also known as savarin, a delight not seen very often around here. It is a dessert of many years ago, around 1700. Could that be the reason why it is not so familiar?I've seen it in lot in French pastry shops.

For me it is ideal for summer, as I said, for its freshness, sweetness and light it is.The dough is like a babka or a brioche, embedded in syrup. The baba has rum, or rhum, and is made in a mold rather cylindrical. The Savarin, the mold is the one we know as Savarín, a ring-shaped one.

The mold and me was love at first sight. I bought it recently and then thought it was perfect to make individual savarins. But the recipe works perfectly for a large cast. 
Is it cute or what?

 

I didn´t put alcohol in the recipe, but feel free to add any kind.


Cinnamon savarin
Dough
Pastry flour* 125g
Common sugar 1 tbsp
Fresh yeast 25 g
Eggs 3
Pinch salt
Butter 50 g

Syrup
Common sugar 300 g
Water 300 ml
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (or branch)

- Mix flour, sugar, yeast and two eggs. Work dough until smooth, it can be a litlle tough at first but. With a mixer with dough hook, if available it´s easier.
- Add the egg and salt. Mix again for a few minutes. You´ll have a smooth dough, almost liquid.
- Add softned butter, and incorporate well
- Let stand for 20 minutes in warm place, covered.
- Prepare the syrup in a saucepan mix sugar and water, bring to boil
- When boiled 1 minute, turn off heat and add the cinnamon
- Grease the mold/s  with butter and preheat the oven to 180°C
- Fill the mold/s to 1/3 of the height and rise until dough reaches the edge
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove and add a spoonful of syrup. Also, you can remove the Savarin and embed into the syrup
- Let cool and store in airtight container in the refrigerator

 

Spiced pears is a bonus, not essential to this dessert, but the freshness, the texture of the pear, creamy, syrupy against the bread and the creamy whipped cream, it´s a good idea.If making the pears is too much, and don´t kill me for saying this, use canned ones. They´re not too bad.

Spiced pears
Pears, peeled, cored and quartered 4
Common sugar 250 g
Water 1 liter
Various spices (2 slices fresh ginger 1 star anise, 3-4 grains allspice, 2 cloves, are what I used)

- Heat the water with the sugar and add the spices
- Add the pears and simmer for 15-25 minutes, depending how mature they are.When a knife inserted, if no resistance, it´s ready.
- Cool the pears in the liquid and store in refrigerator until use.
- Lasts 5 days stored in the syrup

 

Serve with a quarter of a pear and a dollop of whipped cream.

Side notes

- The Savarin / Baba is quite yielder, it doesn´t seem to, but after baking and grown you´ll get about 8-10 servings.

- The amount of syrup is perfect for the baba recipe
- When you add the syrup, the Savarín will inflate, and may not want to come out of the mold, so add a bit in the mold and the rest outside.

- Pears should not be very mature so they can absorb the aroma of the spices while cooking

- The asterisk in the flour * is because I always use the flour that contains dry yeast, which for me has excellent results and it´s available the whole year.

Too many directions? The recipe is pretty easy, almost impossible to ruin, I wouldn´t know how to ruin it. If you are afraid of yeast this is the perfect recipe for to gain a yeasty friend.

Who test it and tell me?