Alain Ducasse's Armagnac baba
For one large Baba and 6 individuals:
- 500 g flour T55
- 17 g fresh baker’s yeast
- 17 g honey
- 4 g salt
- 140 g soft butter
- 500 g beaten eggs
For the syrup:
- 1 kg caster sugar
- 500 g water
- Zest of an orange
- Zest of a lemon
- 1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
© Groupe Alain Ducasse
Put the flour, crumbled yeast, salt (that must not touch the yeast), honey, soft butter and half of the eggs into a mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook. Start to knead gently until you obtain a smooth and homogenous dough. Increase the speed a little (4/5 on a KitchenAid) and gradually add the eggs leaving it to knead in-between each addition.
Leave the mixer turning and kneading just until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl and ‘bangs’. The noise is quite distinctive, the dough becomes very very elastic and takes lots of body, banging as it comes away from the bowl. This easily takes between 15 to 20 minutes. Then remove your dough and place on an oiled baking sheet and leave to rest for 30 minutes. Oil the different moulds and fill them with 2/3 of the dough. Take a pair of scissors to cut it as it is very dense at this moment!
Leave it to for 30 to 45 minutes in a warm place just until the dough reaches the top of the moulds.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 180 C° just until they are lovely and golden.