Baba au whisky by François Geurds

To make this recipe by François Geurds (FG Restaurant ** and FG Food Labs), you simply need to set aside some time. You won’t regret it. Geurds has replaced the rum normally used in combination with the baba with whisky.

Method

Heat the milk until it is lukewarm. Sprinkle the yeast into the milk and let it bubble until the yeast has dissolved. Put the flour, salt and sugar in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix these ingredients for one minute at low speed.

Add the milk with yeast to the flour mixture, followed by the eggs, and mix everything at low speed until the dough is smooth. Now slowly add the softened butter and continue mixing until the dough becomes smooth and glossy. Then cover the bowl with cling film.

Rising

Leave the dough to rise in a warm place for about an hour, until it has doubled in size.
Place the dough on a floured work surface and gently knock it back. Divide the dough into ten equal pieces, approximately 35 grams each, and roll them into small balls. Place these balls in ten separate baking moulds (for example, in this baking mould). Cover them with cling film and let them rise at room temperature for forty to fifty minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 °C.  Bake the babas until golden brown, between twelve and fifteen minutes. Then leave them to cool.

Whisky syrup

Dissolve the sugar in the water in a large pan over medium heat and bring it to the boil. Add the whisky, vanilla seeds and citrus peels. Immerse the babas in the warm whisky syrup and leave them in it for approximately one hour. Turn the babas over every ten minutes.

Crème Suisse

Whip the cream until stiff together with 25 g icing sugar and the seeds from one vanilla pod.

Serving

Serve the baba with crème suisse.