Gateau Breton
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225g plain flour, preferably Italian 00
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250g caster sugar
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250g unsalted butter cut into cubes
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6 large egg yolks
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1 x 25cm springform tin, buttered well
Glaze
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1 teaspoon of yolk from your 6
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1 tablespoon of water
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 190°C/gas mark 5. Mix the glaze and put aside while you get on with your gateaux.
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 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")
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 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