Makes 8 servings

To make baba dough, pour water into a bowl and sprinkle yeast and sugar over it. Add egg and mix. Put flour in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and add yeast mixture. Mix on low until blended. Beat until smooth on medium-low, about 8 minutes. Add butter and beat on low until the butter is absorbed. Remove bowl from mixer and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, put raisins in a bowl and cover with dark rum. Brush 8 baba molds with clarified butter; place on a jelly-roll pan; set aside. When dough has risen, drain raisins, reserving rum, and stir them into the dough. Fill molds halfway. Let dough rest until it fills the molds. Position a rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Bake risen babas for 20 minutes or until golden and slightly shrunken from sides of molds. Unmold onto a rack and cool.

To make pastry cream, put milk in a saucepan and scrape in the vanilla bean seeds. Add the pod and bring to a boil. While milk heats, whisk yolks and sugar together until well blended. Add cornstarch and whisk until thoroughly incorporated. When milk boils, pour a little into yolks, whisking continuously. Still whisking, pour yolks into saucepan and cook until pastry cream thickens enough for whisk to leave tracks. Remove pan from heat and remove pod from pan. Whisk in the butter. Scrape pastry cream into a bowl, press plastic wrap against the surface, and cool quickly over ice in the refrigerator. When cold, fold the whipped cream into the chilled pastry cream.

For syrup, boil the water and sugar for 30 seconds and then turn off heat. Line a jelly-roll pan with waxed paper and set a cooling rack on top. Drop babas, two at a time, into syrup and let soak, turning once, for about a minute. Lift pastries out of syrup and onto rack. Allow babas to cool before finishing. Spoon some dark rum over the cooled babas. Make a 1/2 inch deep cut across the top of each baba and fill with pastry cream. Top each baba with sliced fresh fruits or an assortment of berries.