Gateau Breton

Brittany in the rain

I first visited Brittany a few years ago – lovely coastline, weatherwise pretty much like England, with better seafood. My hotel was right on the sea front, with a beautiful view of mainly rain and mist. The tide was mightily impressive, but as you will have guessed it mostly rained, you could tell tide was in if your feet got wet very quickly while taking a walk.

Brittany in the mouth

That was in the lovely town of Cancale, world famous for oysters, where I greatly impressed a rather stroppy waitress by having polished off single-handedly a large platter of predominantly living things. Because my mission in Brittany was: oysters, crevettes grises and gateau Breton.

I’d tasted it a while back, brought back from hols in France by a friend and I liked it so much I had to research it and make my own. So how did my home endeavours compare with the genuine article? I must say – mine is a pretty damn good replica!

What is gâteau Breton like?

It is unlike any other cake I’ve tried, the crunchy crust quite short and dense but not as crumbly as shortcrust. It melts in your mouth and has a lovely flavour from all those egg yolks and butter.

What is gâteau Breton filled with?

A classic filling is confit prunes: gâteau Breton aux pruneaux. But it can be simply filled with jam, apricot, plum or cherry - I don't think the French are quite so orthodox about it. Other varieties have a layer of crème pâtissière in the middle.

Gâteau Breton or gâteau Basque?

The interesting thing is that the Pays Basque have their own version – called, of course, gateau basque. It tastes quite similar, the method is only slightly different and if you delve deeper into French recipe sites it turns out the process actually could be identical.

So anyway what I offer below is probably the richer option with egg yolks only and an awful lot of butter – and so, so good.

The recipe comes from De Bonnes Recettes du Monde.