Passionfruit Savarin and Strawberries

Generously butter 12 individual savarin tins*. Place the flour, salt, yeast and castor sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Combine the milk, eggs and lemon zest and add to the flour, mixing to form a very wet dough. Combine the soft butter and icing sugar and gradually add this to the dough, ensuring each spoonful is totally beaten in before adding the rest.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to double in bulk. Gently knock back the dough and divide between the moulds, filling them about ½ full. Cover loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap
and allow the dough to rise to the top of the tins. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

Place the tins on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Remove and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Gently loosen around the edge, and tip out onto a cooling rack. Once cool, transfer to a tray.

Syrup: Bring the water and sugar to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for 4 minutes then add the liqueur and the passionfruit pulp. Prick the tops of the savarins with a skewer and pour the hot
syrup over until they won’t absorb any more. Cover and chill in the refrigerator.

To Serve: Toss fresh strawberries with any remaining syrup and serve alongside the savarins with a spoonful of mascarpone.

*Savarin: is both a round bottomed ring tin and the yeasted cake that is baked in it. Once baked, the cake is soaked in a syrup which usually contains alcohol. It is named after Brillat-Savarin, a famous 18th-century food writer.