Poirot gourmet: Baba au Rhum

For the past several months, I’ve been posting foodie pictures of various recipes I’ve found and made that relate in some way to Poirot, tagging them “Poirot gourmet.” It seems like I might as well share them here– and I can also link to recipes and expound on the book references. 🙂

So here’s the first “Poirot gourmet” entry here at Seven Storeys High: Baba au Rhum with a side of crème de cassis.

Baba au Rhum is a kind of currant-laden brioche soaked in rum-and-sugar syrup, glazed with apricot preserves, and frequently served with whipped cream and fruit garnish. You can soak the currants in rum as well before adding them to the dough, which I did. There are many different shapes and forms the brioche base can take; I made one large loaf in my loaf pan and half a dozen smaller servings in cupcake tins. Baking this will make your house smell AMAZING, and the final product tastes even better than it looks– sweet and sophisticated all at once. (I added the crème de cassis to the scene because not only is it a favorite drink of Poirot’s, but it also happens to be heavy on the sugar, currants, and alcohol.) 🙂  You can find several recipes online for this dessert– I used one from McCall’s Cookbook, which is in this post.

Baba au Rhum can be found as a restaurant order of Poirot’s in Lord Edgware Dies.

‘We will dine first, Hastings. And until we drink our coffee, we will not discuss the case further. When engaged in eating, the brain should be the servant of the stomach.’

Poirot was as good as his word. We went to a little restaurant in Soho where he was well known, and there we had a delicious omelette, a sole, a chicken and a Baba au Rhum of which Poirot was inordinately fond.

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