serves 6 (makes 6 x 170ml glasses)

1. for the baba
5g dried yeast
30ml tepid water (35°C)
1/4 tsp + 40g sugar extra
40g butter, melted and cooled down a little
1 egg
25g sugar
seeds from half a Bourbon vanilla pod
250g flour

Mix the yeast, water and 1/4 tsp of sugar. Stir well and let stand until the yeast swells.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg with the remaining sugar and vanilla. Mix in the melted butter. Combine the flour, a little at a time (fanny: more flour can be added if necessary) until you get a soft dough (fanny: it shouldn’t be sticky though).
Knead for 5 minutes and transfer to a well buttered bowl; loosely cover with foil and let the dough to rise at room temperature for an hour.
When doubled in size, lightly press the dough with the palm of your hand.
Butter and flour the inside of six cooking rings (of the same diameter as the glasses in which you’re going to serve your Emotions) or line them with baking paper.
Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and form each piece into a ball. Place a ball of dough at the bottom of each cooking ring; repeat with the remaining balls.
Allow to rise for another hour and preheat the oven to 180°C.
Bake the babas into preheated oven for 20 minutes or until puffy and golden. Transfer to a wire rack, unmould and place them in a deep baking dish and drench with vanilla syrup (fanny: try to coat them evenly).

2. for the vanilla syrup
240ml water
200g sugar
half a Tahitian vanilla pod

Place the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Slice the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape the seeds. Mix both the sliced pod and the seed to the syrup and simmer for 3 minutes until thickened but not coloured.

3. for the vanilla gelée
250ml semi-skimmed milk
40g sugar
2 leaves gelatine
seeds from half a Mexican vanilla pod
180ml single cream

Place the milk, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat, then bring to the boil before removing from the heat.
Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water until soft. Squeeze out the excess water and drop the gelatine into the hot milk mixture and whisk until dissolved.
Add the cream and whisk until smooth.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and divide between six glasses (capacity of 170ml) and chill for at least three hours.

4. for the crème pâtissière
250ml milk
half a Bourbon vanilla bean
3 egg yolks
40g sugar
20g cornflour

Put the milk into a saucepan, scrape out the seeds from the vanilla bean and ass to the pan along with the pod. Bring to the boil and set aside.
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until white and fluffy; mix in the corn flour.
Return the milk to the boil and beat into the egg mixture. Put this back into the pan and place over moderate heat.
Bring it to the boil, stirring constantly – until thick.
Place the crème into a bowl and mixing from time to time, bring it to room temperature.

5. for the vanilla chiboust
100g + 20g white sugar
50ml water
120ml egg whites (fanny: I used the three whites left after having made the crème pâtissière)
pinch of salt
1 quantity of crème pâtissière (see above)

In a sauce pan, place 100g of the sugar and water and bring to the boil.
When the temperature of the sugar syrup reached 110°C begin to beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff then add the remaining sugar.
As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 120°C (fanny: I usually spot this stage without a thermometer – the bubbles are smaller and the steam has disappeared), immediately add it to the meringue while beating continuously until the mixture cools down to room temperature.
Fold into the crème pâtissière and refrigerate for half an hour.

6. Montage des Emotions
For each glass, place a disk of soaked baba over the vanilla gelée, pressing down slightly in order to make it fit.
Place the chiboust in a piping bag (with a 1cm nozzle) and pipe it to cover the baba.
Chill for at least an hour.