TABELIA

AUTHENTIC RECIPE

Gâteau BasqueBasque Cake with Pastry Cream

Basque Cake with Pastry Cream
Difficulty★★★★☆ Prep50 min Cook40 min Rest2 hr 10 min servings4

A cake from the French Basque Country, enclosing pastry cream in buttery shortbread-like dough, scored with a lattice and baked. Its appeal is the contrast between fragrant thick pastry and the custard within. Enclosing the cream without breaking the soft dough is the main challenge; thorough chilling is the key. Handed down in homes and pastry shops, it is a point of regional pride.

Recipe developed and reviewed by the Tabelia Editorial TeamUpdated
100/ 100

AUTHENTICITY SCORE

Authenticity Score

This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • Cake flour (for pastry)250 g
  • Baking powderGives a slight rise and a texture between shortbread and cake4 g
  • Unsalted butter (for pastry)Soften at room temperature140 g
  • Granulated sugar (for pastry)130 g
  • Egg (for pastry)Binds the dough1 piece
  • Salt (for pastry)2 g
  • Zest of an unwaxed lemon grown in JapanGrate into the dough1 piece
  • Whole milk (for the cream)250 ml
  • Egg yolks (for the cream)3 pieces
  • Granulated sugar (for the cream)60 g
  • CornstarchThickens the cream25 g
  • Dark rumFlavors the cream; a traditional Basque formula10 ml
  • Egg yolk (for glaze)Brush over just before baking, then score a lattice1 piece

Method

112 min

Make the dough

  • 1 Cream 140 g softened pastry butter and 130 g pastry sugar in a bowl until pale.
  • 2 Mix in 1 pastry egg and the grated zest of 1/2 lemon.
  • 3 Sift in 250 g cake flour, 4 g baking powder and 2 g salt together; fold with a rubber spatula until no dry flour remains. Proceed when the soft dough forms a single mass.
21 hr

Chill and rest the dough

  • 1 Divide the dough in a 2:1 ratio, flatten each piece into a disc, wrap and refrigerate thoroughly for 1 hour.

Ready when

This dough is soft and cannot be shaped unless well chilled.

315 min

Make the pastry cream

  • 1 Meanwhile(While the dough chills) make the crème pâtissière, or pastry cream.
  • 2 Heat 250 ml milk in a saucepan over medium heat until just below boiling, then turn off.
  • 3 In a bowl, mix 3 cream egg yolks with 60 g cream sugar until pale, then sift in 25 g cornstarch and mix.
  • 4 Gradually add the warm milk while mixing, return to the saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir constantly; after it thickens and bubbles, beat for 1 minute, turn off the heat and mix in 10 ml rum.
430 min

Chill and set the cream

  • 1 Spread the cream on a tray, cover with plastic wrap directly against the surface and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
510 min

Line the tin and fill with cream

  • 1 Start preheating the oven to 180°C.
  • 2 Meanwhile(While the oven heats) lightly butter the inside of an 18 cm tin with extra butter not included in the quantities.
  • 3 Roll the larger dough portion on a floured worktop to about 24 cm in diameter and line the base and sides of the tin.
  • 4 Loosen the cold cream with a rubber spatula, pour in and level the surface.
68 min

Cover and score a lattice

  • 1 Roll the smaller portion to a circle about 18 cm in diameter and lay over the cream, pressing the edges with your fingers to join to the lower dough.
  • 2 Beat 1 glazing egg yolk, brush over the surface and score a diagonal lattice with the back of a fork.
740 min

Bake the Basque cake

  • 1 Bake at 180°C for 35–40 minutes.
  • 2 It is ready when the whole surface is deep golden and the lattice stands out clearly.
840 min

Cool completely in the tin

  • 1 Cool completely in the tin.
  • 2 Cooling firms the pastry so that the cream layer shows neatly when sliced.
A view of Rue Chiquito de Cambo, Cambo-les-Bains
Rue Chiquito de Cambo, Cambo-les-BainsFrance Photo: Yzergues · CC BY-SA 4.0 (resized; display cropped)

About this dish

The Basque Country in southwestern France, bordering Spain, has preserved its own language and culture. Gâteau basque is said to derive from a cake sold in the 19th century by pastry maker Marianne Hirigoyen in the spa town of Cambo-les-Bains.

Inside its thick butter pastry, the filling follows 2 schools: custard or black cherry jam from the local village of Itxassou. Some say coastal preferences favor cream and mountain preferences cherry; household and village styles remain alive today.

It is now a signature sweet found in every Basque pastry shop, and a gâteau basque festival takes place in Cambo-les-Bains in October. The surface lattice or traditional Basque spiral motif also marks it as a symbol of the region.

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