The 100th Bake: Dark Chocolate & Almond Liqueur Savarin

I made it to triple figures, Yay. Can’t believe it. One step at a time and I’m nearly there. Just living the moment and not thinking too much about what lay ahead has helped make this task less daunting.

This was one of those Saturday bakes, when I knew I had all day and could take my time. I needed it! This is not a regular cake, it’s a “rich yeast cake”, soaked in almond liqueur syrup. It comes out light and fluffy and moist. Quite unusual. The dough contains yeast and sugar, salt, milk and eggs, so had to be mixed and proved twice for an hour each time, in order to rise before baking. Now that was plenty of time for contemplation! It’s something I have noticed recently, that seems to be a lost art. When do you see people waiting at bus stops, even walking down the street, just taking in their surroundings and giving their brains time to download and process all the information we pile into it daily. There is usually a device in hand, even at family picnics, its the devices that are reached for to check out status or likes or just what everyone else in the world is doing. I’m guilty of it too but I have to admit I do get my best ideas when I take time out to think. 🙂

As Luther Standing Bear an Oglala Sioux chief once said “I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi mediating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.”

So this recipe involved quite a few steps. I melted the chocolate and set this aside to cool. Then put the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and cocoa powder

into the free -standing electric mixer. After mixing and making a well, I poured in the eggs/milk and mixed. Then added softened butter and melted chocolate. I beat this until it was smooth and elastic, then covered it with elastic film and left it to rise for 1 hour.

While the dough was rising I made the amaretti brittle. I put 50g caster sugar, 25g butter and 2 tbsp of water into a small pan over a low heat to dissolve the sugar. Then brought this to the boil and stirred until it turned a light caramel colour. Then stirred in the almonds and a few drops of almond liqueur extract. I poured this onto an oiled baking sheet and spread out, then left to cool. Great for cake decorating, give it a go!

Over the risen dough, I scattered choc chips and worked this through. Then scooped the dough into the prepared tin and left it to rise again for 1 hour until doubled in size. And that it surely did!!

I baked the risen dough for 35 minutes. While it baked I made the syrup, (phew, yes long recipe, pant, pant). I dissolved sugar and water to make a light syrup then added 4 tablespoons of almond liqueur. As soon as the savarin came out of the oven, I tipped it out onto a baking sheet, poured syrup into the hot tin, then replace the savarin so it could soak it up. Then poured the rest of the syrup over the top. A very moist cake as you can see.

I left this to soak up the syrup and cool, then turned it out onto a serving dish and decorated with melted dark and white chocolate and of course chunks of amaretti brittle. It was really Yum.

Great way to decorate ANY cake!