Strawberry-elderflower babas, Signature

Peter Sawkins’s Strawberry-Elderflower Babas

The handshake card

• Baker: Peter Sawkins
• UK series: Series 11 (2020)
• Week/theme: Week 7, Patisserie semifinal
• Challenge: Signature
• Handshake fact: Peter received a Hollywood handshake for his strawberry-elderflower babas.
• Yield: 24 babas
• Difficulty: Needs skill
• Official timing: 1 hour hands-on, plus rising; 20 minutes baking
• Source: Peter’s Strawberry & Elderflower Babas, The Great British Bake Off
• Evidence: Master index entry #37; research sources [S1], [S2], [S3].

Why it earned the handshake

Peter’s official babas are rich yeast cakes soaked in lemon-and-elderflower syrup, then topped with alternating strawberry and elderflower crème pâtissière. The individual dots turn a classic rum-baba format into a light English summer composition, but the technical demand remains: the babas must rise high, absorb syrup evenly, and hold their shape.

Ingredients

Baba dough

• 270g strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 7g fast-action dried yeast
• 40g caster sugar
• 85ml whole milk
• 4 eggs
• 95g unsalted butter, well softened

Elderflower syrup

• 100ml elderflower cordial
• 150g caster sugar
• Juice and pared strips of peel from 2 unwaxed lemons
• 100ml water

Strawberry crème pâtissière

• 150g strawberries, hulled
• 1 egg yolk
• 25g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp unsalted butter

Elderflower crème pâtissière

• 1 egg yolk
• 20g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 55ml elderflower cordial
• 10ml lemon juice
• 50ml whole milk
• 1 tsp unsalted butter

Finish

• 200g double cream
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 6 whole strawberries
• A few fresh elderflower heads or edible flowers

You will also need baba moulds, a large piping bag, and small piping bags for the creams.

Method

1. Put the flour, salt, yeast, and sugar into a stand mixer fitted with the beater. Warm the milk until hand hot, add it with the eggs, then add the very soft butter in small pieces. Beat slowly until the mixture becomes a thick, smooth, very soft dough.
2. Transfer the dough to a large piping bag and pipe it into the moulds until half full. Cover lightly and leave somewhere warm for up to 3 hours, until the dough reaches the tops.
3. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6. Bake for 10–15 minutes, until golden. Cool in the moulds for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.
4. For the syrup, put the cordial, sugar, water, lemon juice, and peel into a pan. Bring to the boil, stirring, then remove from the heat and cool.
5. Blitz the strawberries and sieve the purée. Measure 100ml. Beat the yolk, sugar, and cornflour in a pan, gradually stir in the purée, and cook over low heat for 3–4 minutes until thick. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, cover the surface, cool, and chill.
6. For the elderflower crème pâtissière, beat the yolk, sugar, and cornflour in a pan. Gradually stir in the cordial, lemon juice, and milk. Cook over low heat for 3–4 minutes until thick, stir in the butter, cover, cool, and chill.
7. Whip the cream and icing sugar to soft peaks. Loosen each crème pâtissière, then beat half the cream into each flavour. Transfer to separate piping bags and chill.
8. Slice the domed tops from the babas so they sit flat upside down. Dunk them in batches, pressing one side into the syrup for about 10 seconds, then flipping for another 10 seconds. Drain on a rack.
9. Pipe alternating dots of elderflower and strawberry crème pâtissière over each baba, using two rows of five dots. Decorate with strawberry pieces and elderflower heads or edible flowers. Serve chilled.

Baker’s tips

• Do not rush the long rise: the dough should reach the tops of the moulds before baking.
• Chill the two crème pâtissières before folding in the whipped cream so the dots hold their shape.
• Soak both sides of each baba evenly, then let excess syrup drain before decorating.

Make-ahead

The creams and syrup can be made ahead and chilled. Bake the babas earlier on the day, but soak and decorate close to serving for the cleanest finish.