Best Babas Au Calvado With Glazed Apple Rings Recipes

APPLE AND CALVADOS TART (GALETTE DE POMMES AU CALVADOS)

Steps:

• Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a rough 16-inch round (1/8 inch thick), then transfer carefully to parchment-lined large baking sheet. Loosely fold in edge of pastry where necessary to fit on baking sheet, then chill, covered loosely with plastic wrap, 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• While pastry is chilling, peel and core apples, then cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Toss slices with lemon juice and 1/3 cup granulated sugar.
• Put baking sheet with pastry on a work surface and unfold any edges so pastry is flat. Spread applesauce over pastry, leaving a 2-inch border, and top sauce with sliced apples, mounding slightly. Fold edges of dough over filling, partially covering apples (center will not be covered) and pleating dough as necessary. Dot apples with butter, then brush pastry edge lightly with water and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar. Bake galette in middle of oven until pastry is golden and apples are tender, 40 to 45 minutes.
• While galette is baking, melt apple jelly in a very small saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring.
• Slide baked galette on parchment onto a rack, then brush with melted jelly and cool galette until warm or room temperature.
• Beat together cream and confectioners sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until cream just holds soft peaks, then beat in Calvados. Serve galette topped with dollops of Calvados cream.

BABAS AU CALVADO WITH GLAZED APPLE RINGS

Steps:

• Make the babas:
• Butter eight 1/3-cup ring molds. In the bowl of an electric mixer proof the yeast with the sugar in the milk for 5 minutes, or until the mixture is foamy. Stir in 1/4 cup of the flour, stir the mixture until it is smooth, and let the sponge rise, covered, in a warm place for 20 minutes, or until it is double in bulk. In a small bowl whisk together lightly the egg and the salt. To the yeast mixture add the remaining 1/2 cup flour in 2 batches alternately with the egg mixture, beating well after each addition. Beat in the butter, 1 piece at a time, beating well after each addition, and the cinnamon and beat the dough, scraping down the side of the bowl, for 3 minutes. (The dough will be very soft.) Divide the dough among the prepared ring molds set in a jelly-roll pan, let the babas rise, uncovered, for 15 minutes, or until they are just even with the tops of the molds, and bake even with the tops of the molds, and bake them in the middle of preheated 375°F. oven for 15 minutes, or until they are golden. Transfer the babas in the molds to a rack set over another jelly-roll pan and let them cool for 10 minutes, or until they are only warm.
• Make the syrup while the babas are cooling:
• In a small saucepan combine the sugar and the water, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and simmer the syrup for 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the Calvados.
• Make the glaze:
• In a small saucepan combine the jelly, the Calvados, and the sugar, bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer it, stirring, for 2 minutes.
• Run a thin, sharp knife around the center and side of each mold and invert the babas onto the rack. Reserve 1/2 cup of the syrup in a measuring cup, spoon the remaining syrup, heated to warm, over the babas, reusing the syrup that drips into the pan, until it is all absorbed, and let the babas stand for 15 minutes. The babas may be prepared up to this point 1 day in advance, kept on the rack set over the jelly-roll pan, and covered with foil.
• Brush the glaze, heated to warm, carefully over the babas. The babas may be glazed 1 hour in advance.
• Reserve 6 to 8 small apple rings. Arrange the remaining apple rings decoratively in overlapping rings on each of 6 to 8 plates, top them with the babas, and garnish each baba with a spoonful of the creème fraîche. Fold the reserved apple rings in half and roll the halves into cones to resemble flower buds. Garnish each baba with an apple-ring "bud" and drizzle some of the reserved syrup around it.