Gateau Breton aux cerises et la crème de citron vert
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Always looking for ways to use my favorite Breton dough, this one is a take on Gateau Basque, the classic butter cake from the Basque region in southern France/northern Spain. It’s typically baked with pastry cream and/or fruit (cherries, apricots, prunes are options) inside. It turns out that many regions of France have their own version of butter cake, Brittany being one of them, so I opted to use the Breton dough for this project. The Basque dough recipe I use from my Le Cordon Bleu days is indeed very similar to a gateau Breton so why not switch it up a bit.
Since it’s cherry season here in western Michigan and I had some lime juice in my freezer, I opted for a roasted sweet cherry/lime curd combo for my gateau.
For about a pound of pitted and halved Bing cherries, I sprinkled them with a couple tablespoons dark brown sugar, stirred ‘em up, spread them out on a silicone mat lined half sheet pan and gave them a low and slow roast in a 275ºF oven for about an hour or so, stirring them around every 10-15 minutes. I didn’t (forgot to!) do an after roasting final weight for the batch but I can tell you I used about 105 g intact cherry pieces for my 7” size gateau and pureed the remainder (yield a tad over 3/4 cup) to use in both a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream as well as a cherry chocolate ganache (more on that later).
Ooooh!
I had made a batch of lime curd (just sub lime juice for the lemon) the day before, using about 240 g for this gateau and freezing the rest for another as-yet-to-be-determined project. Hmmm - how about lime curd toasted coconut ice cream or lime curd Swiss meringue buttercream? We’ll just see about that.
I already had my Breton dough made as a result of a tart class I recently taught and figured out that a 7” cake pan would be perfect for the 515 g of dough I had on hand.
Let’s assemble this baby, eh? Start your oven heating to 350ºF.
Butter the bottom and sides of the pan well, line the bottom with a round of parchment and butter it too. Press 275 g of dough evenly into the bottom.
Next create a narrow rim to build up the edges using 60 g of dough.
Next pipe in or spread a layer of lime curd (about 190 g) over the bottom keeping it inside the rim.
Now nestle the cherries over that, leaving yourself a rim of curd uncovered by the fruit.
Dollop the remaining curd over the cherries.
Top with 180 g dough, sealing the edges. Remember this is pretty rustic so don’t fuss too much about it.
Lightly brush the top with egg wash or milk for a bit of sheen and some in-oven enhanced browning. With the tip of a paring knife create a cross hatch pattern (or whatever pattern you want) - I went for diamonds.
Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes then decrease the temp to 325º and bake an additional 25-30 minutes. I rotate my pan about half way through. You’re looking for a nicely golden brown crust.
Remember every oven is different so use your judgement. It’s not easy to assess the interior of this kind of gateau but remember the curd and cherries have already been “cooked” as it were, so you don’t have to worry about a raw center. The cream/curd tends to kind of meld into the dough too.
Ooooh - that’s looks great!
Let it cool in the pan about 10 minutes then, using a small offset spatula, run it just inside the edge of the pan to loosen things. Hold an overturned cooling rack across the top of the pan, lift pan and rack together and flip ‘em over. You should be able to lift the pan right off the gateau.
Now flip it back right side up the same way. Et voilà!
Let it cool, slice and enjoy at room temperature with perhaps a dollop of crème Chantilly, some additional cherries if you have them and some toasted sliced almonds. We sampled it au naturel and gave it a thumbs up.
It stores covered in the fridge for several days. We enjoyed a small slice here and there with afternoon coffee or as a small after dinner treat. Not bad.
On a final note, check this out!! On my daily walks I occasionally swing through a nearby township park and discovered this interesting natural sculpture in the wooded edge. The first time I noticed it was last October right around Halloween - how cool! I call it the tree witch and thought you might like to see it.
Keep on keepin’ on folks. Enjoy summer - it’s not over yet!
