Bretagne is the area of France I love the most (together with Provence). I went there only once, as a child, but it was so breathtakingly beautiful that I remember it clearly. I have the memory of eating a fantastic fish soup in a restaurant in the walled city of Saint-Malo, while it was raining cats and dogs outside… perfect pirate-like weather for a place that reminded me so much of pirates (well, corsairs to be precise). I remember my parents buying fresh oysters and eating clafoutis. And, above all, I remember wandering through the menhirs and dolmens around Carnac… it felt like Astérix or Obélix could jump out from behind them any time!
The recipe I am going to share with you today is from Bretagne and it is perfect to use up all your left-over egg yolks. You know when you make macarons or pavlova and you are left with MANY yolks? AND you do not have a lot of time to make blueberry curd or crème patissière? Well, this cake will solve your “problem”. I made it right after making the Pavlova I served for my “Come have some Aussie tucker, mate!” party and my girls LOVED it. I must admit we all liked it… it is very hard to resist this buttery delight! I took it from Lorraine’s site Not Quite Nigella… you can’t go wrong with anything she makes, I tell you! Serve it for breakfast, tea time or as an after dinner treat and you will be in heaven! For me, it also brought back very pleasant memories… sans corsairs! 🙂 Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Not Quite Nigella
Ingredients (for a 23 to 25 cm – 9 to 10 inches round spring-form tin):
For the cake
225 gms – 8 oz. plain flour
250 gms – 8.8 oz. caster sugar
250 gms – 8.8 oz. cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes (plus some to grease the tin)
6 egg yolks
For the glaze
1 tsp of yolk from the above 6
1 tbsp water
Put the sifted flour, caster sugar, yolks (remember to keep 1 teaspoon of yolk aside for the glaze!) and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the hook attachment and knead for a few minutes, until you get a smooth dough.
Put the dough in the greased tin and smooth the top with a floured hand (it will be sticky).
Mix the teaspoon of yolk with the water to make the glaze and brush the top of the gâteau with it. Make a lattice pattern on the top using the prongs of a fork.
Bake it in a pre heated oven at 190°C – 375°F for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180°C – 355°F and bake it for 25 minutes or until golden at the top and firm to the touch.
Let it cool completely in the tin before unmoulding it. Cut it in slices or diamond shapes to serve. It keeps well in an airtight container, if you have leftovers.
Hi, I just made this cake the other day and it was dripping with oil. Is it suppose to be like that?
Thanks
Hi Alice. I made it a couple of times and it never happened to me. I am not sure why yours was dripping with oil. Did you use softened butter? This cake needs to be made with cold butter… that’s the only reason I could think of. I will add that to the recipe right now as it did not occur to me to specify it (I usually do when you need softened butter and thought it looked hard enough in the picture). I am sorry about it! 🙁
Hi Manu,
yes I softened the butter a little bit so I could work the dough out with my hand. I would try again with cold butter. Thanks any way.
Must be delicious! And so simple I could actually manage to bake it!
Manu, this looks like a perfect way to use my leftover egg yolks. The picture looks so tempting…Not Quite Nigella is a great blog and I loved this recipe.
Such a lovely image of your memory of traveling with your parents. The dessert looks gorgeous!
Thank you so much! 🙂
Perfectly done Manu
Hugely attractive cake: certain to be very moreish on taste! What a beautiful cross-blog with Lorraine!
What a gorgeous gateau!
Lorraine has wonderful recipes.
Your cake looks so wonderful, like the diamonds on it and the bright the egg gave to it. I should try at home
Beautiful!!!
Manu I have to say that everything which come’s out from ur kitchen is amazingly beautiful…
I need to move to Australia…
Manu, your Gateau Breton looks wonderful! You got those elusive diamond shapes too! Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Thank you for the lovely shoutout too! 😀