Pain aux raisins

Chef Philippe’s selected pains aux raisins roll a yeast-raised, butter-laminated dough around pastry cream and Corinth raisins. Brown rum flavours the cream, and a blond glaze gives the baked spirals a shiny surface.

Fresh yeast, flour, salt, sugar, milk powder, whole egg, softened butter and water are kneaded into the base dough. A separate slab of rolling butter is enclosed, followed by a double fold and a single fold with chilled rests.

Prepared pastry cream is cooked until thick, cooled and beaten smooth before brown rum is mixed in. The chilled dough is divided in two, and a thin layer of cream spreads over each working sheet.

Raisins softened in hot water are drained and scattered over the cream. The dough rolls tightly into a log, is cut into thick slices and rises before receiving a separate yolk-and-water wash.

The spirals bake until golden and cool on the work surface. Melted blond glaze is brushed over them, leaving a glossy finish around the cream-and-raisin filling.