The traditional gâteau basque recipe
Recipe
Yields
6/8 eaters
Prep Time
40 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Oven Temperature
180° C or 350° F
Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 4 egg yolks + 2 mid-size eggs at room temperature
- 200 g sugar (sucre cristallisé)
- 400 g all-purpose flour
- 3 g fine table salt
- 3 g baking powder (half bag of French poudre à lever)
Pastry Cream
- 1/2 litre whole milk
- 2 egg yolks + 1 egg
- 120 g sugar (sucre semoule)
- 50 g all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon rhum (rhum ambré)
- 1 whole vanilla pod, to infuse in the milk
Instructions
1. Make the cake dough
In a clean bowl combine the butter, sugar and salt.
Add the egg yolks, then the whole eggs, incorporate well to the mix.
Once smooth, let on the side.
In a different recipient blend together the dry ingredients (flour and baking soda).
Add to the wet mix (butter, sugar, salt, eggs).
The dough must not stick.
Form a ball, wrap it up with cellophane and let rest in the fridge half hour minimum.
2. Make the pastry cream
Bring the milk to a boil (infusing the vanilla pod).
Chef’s tip to prevent the milk to stick to the pot: pour in a small amount of water in the pot and discard before pouring in the milk.
In a round recipient (cul-de-poule in French) whisk the egg yolks, whole egg and sugar together until obtaining a foamy aspect (blanchir is a technique used to whiten the eggs).
Incorporate the flour, little by little whisking constantly.
When the is boiling milk, remove the vanilla, and pour in the half of the milk slowly into your mix, slowly combining everything together.
Pour the mix into the pot containing the rest of the milk. Bring back to mid-fire, mix constantly until the cream thickens.
Fire-off, add a pinch of rhum (to taste).
Pour into a large glass salade bowl and cover with cellophane (the plastic film needs to be in contact with the cream all over the top of the bowl) and let cool at room temperature.
3. Assemble and decorate
Spread the dough in a rectangle of 0.5cm of width and cut circles in the size of your cake mold (2 circles per cake).
Place a dough circle in the mold, pour in pastry cream in the middle, spread to about 2cm from the edge.
Close with the second circle by placing it gently on top of the cream.
Brush the top circle with a whisked egg yolk (this will give your cake a shiny color).
Chef’s tip: before brushing your cake, give it a personalised decor!
Oven bake at 350° F for 30 min or until the cake has nice golden caramel color.
Once out, let rest and cool completely before tasting.
Chef’s tip: Best flavors in the cake the next day !
Bon Appétit ! On Egin !
