Rum baba with caramelised apples and chantilly cream

Method

• step 1

  To make the dough, warm the milk to tepid and crumble in the yeast until dissolved. Add 15g of the flour and leave somewhere warm to ferment for 20 minutes or so.

• step 2

  Put the rest of the flour, sugar and a large pinch of salt in an electric mixer with a dough hook. Add the eggs to the dry ingredients with the yeast mix and beat for 10-15 minutes until the dough becomes elastic. Leave to prove in the bowl until doubled in volume, then beat in the soft butter.

• step 3

  Put the mix in a piping bag with a wide nozzle and pipe between 6 small dariole moulds (buttered if not non-stick). Leave for another 30 minutes to an hour until proven.

• step 4

  Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Bake on a baking tray for 20 minutes until golden brown, then remove from the moulds and allow to cool completely.

• step 5

  To make the caramelised apples, heat a frying pan over a medium heat for 5 minutes, add the sugar and heat to a golden caramel. Add the apples and spices and cook gently until the apples are soft and caramelised. Set aside to cool.

• step 6

  To make the rum syrup heat the sugar and 400ml water together until the sugar dissolves. Boil until syrupy then cool completely before adding the rum. Warm a little of the syrup, add a handful of golden raisins and leave to soak.

• step 7

  Cut the babas in half and soak in the warm remaining syrup until well imbibed (punch up with a litle splash of extra rum to make sure you can taste it).

• step 8

  Whip the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla together.

• step 9

  Divide the caramelised apples between plates add two halves of a baba to each sandwiched with some of the cream. Serve very thin slices of apple as a fresh salad alongside if you like.