Recipe for Savarin Chantilly, a rich, airy French bundt cake soaked in a simple syrup and topped with apricot glaze and whipped cream. In France it’s a feast-day dessert.
This recipe came from my mother-in-law, who made it for my niece’s outdoor wedding in Oskaloosa, Kansas. It was served under a tent in a field alongside her other homemade desserts, and it was the one people kept talking about. She’d been making it for decades. This is her recipe.
It’s more involved than most recipes on this site. The dough needs two rises, the syrup soaking takes patience, and the apricot glaze requires straining. But each step is straightforward, and the result is a showpiece dessert that tastes as impressive as it looks.
My niece got married in a field in Oskaloosa, Kansas last weekend. Afterwards we had lunch under a tent. My mother-in-law made all of the desserts including this Savarin, a rich airy cake soaked in a simple syrup and topped with apricot glaze and whipped cream. It's traditionally served as a feast-day dessert in France. This is her recipe. It's a little more complicated than the recipes I usually post, but I think it's worth the effort.
Ingredients
- 1 package active dry yeast
- ¼ cup warm water
- ½ cup milk scalded
- ⅓ cup soft butter or margarine
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 egg
For Savarin Syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup or to taste rum, kirsch or cognac
- Bring water and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Stir in rum kirsch or cognac.
For Apricot Glaze
- One 12-ounce jar 1/1/4 cups apricot preserves. Heat in a saucepan at medium-low, then strain to remove solids.
For Créme Chantilly
- To make homemade whipped cream whip 2 cups heavy whipping cream with 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla, or feel free to use pre-made whipped cream.
Instructions
- Grease a 12-cup (10-inch) bundt pan.
- Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set aside.
- Stir butter, sugar and salt into scalded milk until butter melts. Cool to lukewarm. Pour into a large bowl. Beat in 1/2 cup of the flour, egg and yeast with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add the remaining flour and beat vigorously for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Cover and let rise in warm place until the dough doubles in size, about 1 1/4 hours.
- Stir down batter and spoon into greased baking pan. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes longer.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done and top is nicely browned. Cool 5 minutes and remove from mold onto serving plate.
- Prick top of Savarin in several places with a fork, and gradually drizzle with Savarin Syrup. Let cake soak up syrup before drizzling on more syrup. Continue until well soaked. This should take 30 minutes to one hour depending on how saturated you want your cake.
- Carefully pour warm apricot glaze over Savarin, spreading with a knife or pastry brush to coat completely.
- Allow Savarin to cool completely and serve with Whipped Creme Chantilly.
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