Assembling mini savarins with whipped cream and diced mango
I first discovered savarins in pastry school and fell in love with them. While their pastry counterparts, baba au rhums, have rum and raisins, I prefer the citrus notes of savarin and the garnishes of fresh fruit and whip cream. For the Bouchon Bakery recipe the interpretation is tropical with a passionfruit soaking syrup and mango, papaya and banana accompaniments.
As much as baking is a science, I feel a part of the success is also intuition and the love that goes into the making of the product. There was no love to begin with when I realized I had didn’t have access to a mixer. I prepared the dough by hand which could have been the problem to begin with because my arm strength is no match for a mixer and probably worse than most as I have trouble whipping cream by hand. Let’s face it. The weak arms go back to kindergarten when I had to climb a rope. I was a swinging pendulum. Just…sad.
I used two types of molds for the recipe. I had two 5″ bundt molds to create the crueller-shaped savarins and a de Buyer silicone pan that makes six 2 1/2″ mini savarins. After preparing the dough and letting it sit in the fridge, I piped it into the molds and let the savarins rise for 30 minutes. Per the recipe, they should have risen just slightly. My location was icebox cold so I let it go further for about an hour to get some movement but I didn’t see too much happening. My gut was telling me something did not work with the yeast but I put them in the oven on convection to get some extra spring. At the halfway point I started seeing a little bit of cracking on the top which was not what I was expecting. Gut really just telling me all sorts of WRONG now but I kept moving forward.
For the syrup, I didn’t have passionfruit puree so I used my recipe from school for a citrus syrup consisting of orange and lemon juice infused into simple syrup. It’s my favorite. I drenched the cakes with syrup. Then to finish, I piped whipped cream into the cavities and mounded diced mangoes on top.
Gosh I have been such a Debbie Downer this whole recipe. Part of it is because it’s one of my favorite recipes so to see it not work is a bit heartbreaking. Tasting didn’t help much. The actual savarin was a bit dense and not as spongy as I would have liked. It could have used more syrup as well. I will have to give this another try with a mixer and I might try to activate the yeast in some warm water first before adding to the dough to see if that helps. Not giving up!
Week 47 of the Bouchon Bakery Book Project
Read the Project recap on Speculoos Cookies
Bake with us!
No Comments