A rather fabulous dilemma to have is one that I had recently when we did a butter taste test with friends. We had purchased 13 fantastic European butters and after doing our taste test we had pretty much 13 cakes of butter minus the small amount we used for tasting. We tried packing up the butters for the taste testers and whilst they took a couple, it didn’t really diminish the pile of butter in the fridge. What better to do with good quality butter is a Gateau Breton, the very buttery shortbready biscuit cake originating from Brittany in France. And what better butter to use for it than Brittany butter. The Brittany butter was voted as some of the best in the lot by our tasters so I decided on its fate instantly. Isn’t that how butter wants to end up?
For some strange reason, slicing the diamond shapes doesn’t always result in the lines staying put and I’m not sure why that is (and neither is Nigella). As I was using another kitchen, one of someone who doesn’t cook, they didn’t have a pastry brush so I had to improvise and fashion myself a brush made out of baking paper so the glaze application wasn’t quite up to par. Nevertheless this eggy buttery cake is richly gorgeous and golden hued. It’s fantastic served with coffee in the afternoon or for a delicious end to a dinner.
Gateau Breton
- 225g plain flour, preferably Italian 00
- 250g caster sugar
- 250g unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1 x 25cm springform tin, buttered well
Glaze
- 1 teaspoon of yolk from your 6
- 1 tablespoon of water
1. Preheat oven to 190°C/gas mark 5. Mix the glaze and put aside while you get on with your gateaux.
2. Put the flour in a bowl (I never bother to sieve 00 flour because it’s so finely milled, but if you’;re using regular plain flour then do so), stir in the sugar and add butter and yolks.
3. With the dough hook attachment of the mixer, slowly whirr till you’ve got a smooth golden dough. If you’re making this by hand. make a mound of the flour on a worktop , then make a well in it and add the sugar, butter and eggs and knead to mix.
4. Scoop this dough into the tin, and smooth the top with a floured hand: expect it to be very sticky; indeed it should be.
Brushing gateau with egg glaze (using improvised “brush”)
5. Brush gateau with the glaze, and mark a lattice pattern design on top with the prongs of a fork. For a reason I am not technically proficient enough to explain, sometimes the tine marks leave a firm, striated imprint (a bit like the scrapy line that drive Gregory Peck mad in Spellbound); at others, as with the cake in the picture, they barely show once the cake’s cooked.
6. Bake for 15 minutes then turn the oven down to 180 C/gas mark 4 for 15 min and give it another 25 minutes or so until it’s golden at the top and firm to the touch.
7. Let it cool completely in the tin before unmoulding it. It will keep well if you’ve got a reliably airtight tin. when you come to eat it, either cut it in traditional – though slightly narrower – cake-like wedges or, as I prefer if I’m eating it at the end of dinner, criss-cross making irregularly shaped diamonds.
Serves 8-10
From How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
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14 Comments | Add your own
mmm…Brittany Butter Cake sounds like just the thing for me!
Looks gloriously rich. I like your portion sizes as well
I’m sure it’s something really special! I hadn’t even thought about what you’d do with all of the leftover butter.
I remember reading this year about the worlds butter shortage supply and how some bakeries were locking their butter up because it was being stolen!
eggs, butter, sugar, flour–how could you ever go wrong with a cast of characters like that? i’m especially partial to the butter portion.
Buttery goodness! Looks so tasty I will have to try this someday ^^
I have bookmarked this recipe on the book, since I want to make friands and need another recipe to use the egg yolks.
This looks superb, Lorraine!
Hi Brittany-Indeed it does!
Hi Y-It’s very rich so I think it needs the portion sizing
Hi Maria-There was SO much butter leftover
I remember seeing a news story about it, there’s definitely no shortage in the UK!
Hi grace-true, based on those ingredients, it’s hard to screw it up
Hi FFichiban-It’s definitely worth whipping up for a nice afternoon tea or dessert
Hi Patricia-That’s right, there’s always too many yolks or eggs in my fridge at any one time
Tried and tested! My folks bought a 300-year old house in Brittany and my mom & I became addicted to this – although we aways bought it & never tried making it ourselves.
This winter, they headed north for the summer & left me behind so I decided to try my hand at making a Breton Gateau so at least I’d feel not-too-hard-done-by!
This recipe is super easy, and tastes exactly as it should.
Agree about the lattice pattern appearing only when it decides – I am making this recipe now for the second time and it is not showing up. C’est la vie, non?
Thank you!
Just saw this recipe in Manu’s blog. Waht a wonderful cake, and looks very easy to make
Where can I buy Brittany butter in Southern California , specifically Santa Barbara?
This sounds like a real treat! I’m gonna have a go at making it as an after dinner cake for Christmas. j’espére que le gateau gouterai bien! Merci!
3 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] I usually make these for Christmas presents but don’t think I would recommend that you make a Gateau Breton requiring 6 egg yolks and leave you stranded with 6 egg whites do you? Of course not Dear Reader. [...]
[...] recipe for Butter Cake the first person I thought of was her. Last Christmas I baked her a buttery Gateau Breton (something between a shortbread and a cake) and she was enraptured by it so naturally a rich and [...]
[...] 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 [...]
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