Sourdough Savarin

Gorgeous isn't it?  I've been having so much fun with my sourdough starter, that I decided to try my hand at a savarin, which is a yeasted cake, soaked in rum and baked in a ring mold, and adapt it to use my starter.  I'm not sure I could reproduce it if I wanted to, but I'm going to try.  Since I used the sourdough starter, this recipe was all about patience.  I started it the night before I baked it to give the yeast a chance to do their thing, and then it had an additional 4-5 hours of rising time the next day.  I'm sending this beauty over to Susan at Wild Yeast for her YeastSpotting event.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. very wet potato flour sourdough starter

1/2 c. very warm water

1 1/3 c. high gluten unbleached white flour

1 Tbls. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1.  The night before you want to bake the cake, combine the sourdough starter, water, flour, sugar and salt.  Mix until the flour is moistened, it should resemble cottage cheese.  Add more water if needed.  Cover bowl and leave over night.

2.  The next morning, mix in:

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 c. high gluten unbleached white flour

3.  Knead the dough lightly, and add in:

1/4 c. unsalted, melted butter

4.  Knead the dough until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough is smooth and pliable.  Put the dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise about 1 hour.

5.  Lightly oil a Bundt pan.  Gently place the dough into the Bundt pan, spreading it out with your fingers so that it is even and fills the pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place until dough has risen to about an inch below the rim of the pan.  For me, this took about 4 hours.

6.  Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Remove the plastic wrap and bake the savarin until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean (about 45 minutes)

7.  Immediately unmold the savarin and place it on a cooling rack (Below is a picture)

Unmolded savarin fresh from the oven

8.  Once cooled, make a simple sugar syrup by adding to a saucepan:

1 c. water

2 c. sugar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

9.  Put the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring the syrup to a boil.  After the mixture has boiled, remove from heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla extract

10.  Place the cooling rack on top of a cookie pan with sides.  Immediately soak the cake with the very hot sugar syrup by brushing it on thickly.  Pour the syrup that has drained into the pan back into the saucepan, re-boil it, and then pour that over the cake again.

11.  After soaking the cake with the sugar syrup twice, brush the cake with 1/3 c. rum

12.  Warm about 1/2 cup apricot or peach jelly in a small saucepan until melted.  Brush this over the cake after the rum.

13.  To serve, you can fill the center with whipped cream or serve as is with an accompaniment of sliced berries or serve plain.

Savarin after the first sugar syrup coating