Is it a cake or a pie? The Gâteau Basque blurs the lines between both, offering a crispy crust and a luscious almond-flavored pastry cream filling. If you love the rich, velvety texture of crème pâtissière, this traditional dessert from the Basque region of Spain is a must-try.
The Basque Country, situated between Spain and France, is known for its unique culinary traditions, and Gâteau Basque is one of its signature desserts. With its buttery crust and creamy almond filling, it’s a perfect balance of texture and flavor.
Despite its name, it's not really a gâteaux, or cake, but rather two layers of buttery, crumbly crust filled with pastry cream. As it bakes, the crust and filling meld into one delicious whole.
- Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table
by Suzanne Goin, Teri Gelber
Recipe: Gâteaux Basque (Almond-Filled Basque Cake)
Serves: 8
Ingredients:
Instructions:
1 Prepare the Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière):
- Heat the milk and vanilla in a saucepan until it reaches a boil.
- In a stand mixer, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until smooth.
- Gradually fold in flour and ground almonds.
- Slowly drizzle the boiled milk into the yolk mixture while whisking continuously.
- Return the mixture to the heat and bring it to a gentle boil, simmering for 5 minutes while stirring constantly.
2. Cool the Pastry Cream:
- Pour the cream into a shallow pan, cover with plastic wrap, and optionally dot with butter to prevent a skin from forming.
3. Assemble the Gâteau Basque:
- Use a food processor to prepare the dough for the crispy crust.
- Layer the pastry cream filling inside the crust.
4. Bake:
- Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes until the crust is golden and crisp.
You can find the recipe for Gâteaux Basque (Almond-Filled Basque Cake) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link).
Tasting Notes
I loved the crust, but I would fill it with more than just almond pastry cream next time.
More Almond-Inspired Desserts
Ask Chef Dennis: Home » Recipes » Cake Recipes Gateau Basque {Basque Cake Recipe}
Epicurious: Gâteau Basque
Next Time
Meringue in Concorde (Chocolate Meringue Cake Filled with Chocolate Mousse) page 464
::Whisk::
I'm baking my way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link) cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, I try to find a suitable substitution.
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6 comments:
These look delicious and fun...love the mini size. I am missing all my French cooking...need to get back to that, so am thinking of making Wednesday French again on the blog...using the LCB books I have...can I still call it Whisk Wednesdays and not hook it up to the old group or go ahead and hook it up to the old group so people can see the past things we made? I'm going to slowly make my way through that book one way or another, I thought this might be the easiest way, to just get back into routine of posting something, anything from that book we haven't made already on Wednesdays. I also have a LCB Desserts book to pull from. Hope you are having a great summer!
Looks beautiful!
I always read your blog, and today I was overcome by guilt for not saying anything. Because I enjoy reading it so much!
Have a wonderful day!
So... it's umm.... a cake pie?? yes please!!!
Umm, the Basque region (País Vasco y Navarra) is a region of Spain bordering France, not the other way around.
Thanks for the correction! I've fixed the post. :)
This cake looks great! Love almonds every which way :)
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