Alain Ducasse’s Signature Dish - Baba au Rhum : Recipe

Tetsuya's world-renowned signature dish is one of 20 fabulous recipes uncovered in Fritz Gubler's book Great, Grand & Famous Chefs and their Signature Dishes

In a large stainless steel bowl, dissolve 1 sachet of dried yeast in 1/3 cup of milk. Stir over a medium heat until warm.
Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 cup of sifted flour, cover and set in a warm place for 20 minutes.
Beat 7 tablespoons of softened unsalted butter with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of flour. Add four eggs, one at a time, and beat well. When the yeast dough has risen and become spongy, whisk in this mixture, plus a further 1 1/4 cups of flour, to make a thick, doughlike batter.
Spoon the batter into eight greased dariole moulds. Bake in a 350 F (raewyn to change to C!) oven for 20 minutes.
Stir 1 cup of sugar into 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the zest of 1 orange, in strips. When cool, add 1/2 a cup of rum.
When the babas are risen and golden, remove from the oven and unmold. Dip them into the syrup to saturate and then leave on a wire rack to cool. When cool, brush with warmed, strained apricot jam.
To serve, split the babas lengthwise and spoon over more rum, then top with vanilla whipped cream.

Recipe extract from Great, Grand & Famous Chefs and their Signature Dishes
By: Fritz Gubler
Softcover, 255 pages
RRP: $49.99
ISBN 9780980466720
Published 2009
www.greatgrandfamous.com