Limoncello babà with vanilla cream

MAKES 8 // PREP TIME 30 MINS // COOK 25 MINS (PLUS PROVING, INFUSING, SOAKING)

“Baba au rhum, a Neapolitan classic, is possibly my favourite dessert,” says Koludrovic. “Booze-soaked brioche sponge served with vanilla cream – what’s not to love? This is soaked in herbaceous limoncello syrup – serve it warm with segments of sharp citrus.”

Olive oil spray, for greasing Segments from 4 citrus fruits, such as pomelo, blood orange, orange and grapefruit

BABÀ BATTER

210 gm plain flour, plus extra

for dusting

30 gm caster sugar

7 gm (about 1 sachet)

dried yeast

65 ml lukewarm milk

35 ml lukewarm pouring cream

2 eggs, lightly beaten

65 gm diced butter, softened

LIMONCELLO SYRUP

1 cup (loosely packed) lemon verbena (fresh or dried; see note), lightly crushed

30 gm caster sugar

700 ml limoncello

200 ml dry vermouth

Thinly peeled rind and juice of 2 oranges

Peeled rind of 2 lemons

VANILLA CREAM

200 ml pouring cream

150 ml thickened cream

10 gm pure icing sugar, sifted Scraped seeds of

1 vanilla bean

1 For batter, mix flour, sugar and ½ tsp salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook to combine. Place yeast and 1 tbsp flour mixture in a bowl, add warm milk and cream, and whisk to dissolve. With mixer on medium speed, add eggs and yeast mixture and knead until dough is smooth and pulling away from sides of bowl (5 minutes). Add butter a piece at a time, kneading until incorporated.

Cover batter with plastic wrap and rest in a warm place until doubled in size (30-45 minutes). 2 Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease and flour 8 mini metal 1-cup bundt tins or dariole moulds and place on a baking tray. Knock back dough, divide among moulds and rest in a warm place until batter rises above the top of moulds

(30-40 minutes). Cover moulds with baking paper, place a heavy baking tray on top and weight with baking weights, rice or dried beans to keep tops flat. Bake for 6 minutes, then reduce oven to 160°C, remove tray and bake until golden brown (8-10 minutes). Remove babàs from oven and cool in moulds. 3 For limoncello syrup, place lemon verbena in a heatproof bowl. Bring remaining ingredients to the boil in a saucepan with 100ml water. Pour onto lemon verbena and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Syrup will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for 2 weeks.

4 For vanilla cream, whisk ingredients to soft peaks and refrigerate until needed.

5 Unmould babà, place in a large bowl and pour warm (not hot) syrup over (if syrup is too hot the babàs will break down). Soak for 8-12 minutes, then spoon syrup over the top occasionally until babàs are completely soaked through. Serve warm or cool topped with vanilla cream, citrus segments and with remaining syrup.

Note Lemon verbena is available from select nurseries and from online suppliers such as herbcottage.com.au. Babàs can be made in advance and stored, unsoaked, in an airtight container for three days or frozen for up to three months. Soak on the day of serving.