Rum babas

Melt the butter and let it cool until tepid.

Activate half a packet of active dry yeast in 1.5 tablespoons of water until it doubles in size.

In a bowl, whisk the activated yeast with the sugar and salt to a paste; beat in the egg; add the flour and the cooled melted butter and mix with a wooden spoon.

Knead in the bowl by lifting, slapping and pulling the dough against the sides for five minutes, until it detaches from the bowl and hands and stretches five to six inches (half batch) without breaking.

Form into a ball in the bowl, cut an inch deep across the top and sprinkle with half a teaspoon of flour.

Cover with a damp kitchen towel and rise in a warm place until doubled, an hour to an hour and a half.

Grease the baba molds. Deflate the dough by gathering it from the sides to the center with cupped fingers.

Break off pieces of dough to fill each mold a third full (book: about a tablespoon; here about golf-ball size).

Rise uncovered in a warm place until the dough is a quarter inch above the rim; here it took more than two hours and the dough was consolidated into fewer molds.

Bake in the upper part of a 375F oven for 15 minutes.

Unmold onto a baking rack.

In a saucepan bring the water and sugar to a boil; turn off the heat and stir until the sugar dissolves; stir in the rum.

Set the babas in a dish two inches deep, prick the tops in several places and baste with the syrup again and again for half an hour, until moist and spongy but still holding their shape.

Drain on a rack for half an hour.

Pass the apricot jam through a sieve into a saucepan, add a little sugar and heat for two to three minutes.

Sprinkle the top of each drained baba with a few drops of rum.

Paint the apricot glaze all over with a pastry brush and top each with a candied cherry.