it’s all about the butter … Gateau Breton

It may be cliché, but Paris calls to me. Softly, quietly it’s a sirens song that pulls at my heartstrings. And my stomach. Everytime I visit, she welcomes me back like an old friend, no matter how much time has passed. I love nothing more than to wander about with no real plan, looking in shop windows and discovering little pastry shops on every street corner. The bakery culture in France, Paris especially, astounds and delights me. It’s not uncommon for me to start early in the morning with a list of patisserie shops and purchase something from each of them, six or seven easily depending on the neighborhood, before noon. I love to experience a city through it’s food and this is my favorite way to go about it in my favorite city. Paris’s lure may be quiet and subtle, but my friend Jane is more persistent. She’s been on my case to come for a visit for months and truthfully, it has been a few years since I’ve walked those beautiful streets. I was due. So this summer in the middle of my countryside visit, I hopped a train north and found myself in the middle of the Montparnasse train station in a mere 5 hours.

My first stop was Jane’s shop, right on the Seine. She has a lovely cooking school, La Cuisine Paris, that you really should check out. Three beautiful kitchens with a wonderful staff that can teach you how to make the perfect baguette, master those pesky macarons or make a classic French meal. They also offer fabulous tours covering a variety of topics and neighborhoods, including a tour of the King’s potager garden at Versailles that sounds fascinating. Jane also has a knack for thinking the same thing I am and asked “Hey. Do you want to take a class while you’re here? Oh or how about a tour?” There was a pastry tour of the Marais neighborhood later that week. Perfect! I was 100% on board.

So on an incredibly hot and sweltering Thursday, after a morning of wandering through the Luxembourg Gardens and grabbing lunch at one of my favorite wine bars, I found myself sweating in Jane’s reception area, waiting for my fellow tour mates. Our guide for the day was Karen, a lovely American woman from Boston. She glided in the door fashionably dressed, hair in a perfect up-do, looking like a million bucks. Let’s just say she was the polar opposite of me at that particular moment. Tall, thin, cool and blonde to my short, dark and sweaty. Humph. Let’s go eat some pastries for chrissakes.

She was wonderful – knowledgeable, patient and persistent as she guided our motley crew from shop to shop, from chocolatier to patisserie to confiserie, keeping us informed, fed and moving along at a nice clip. If I recall, we hit 7 shops in a couple hours including a few I’d never been too which is really saying something. It was wonderful. I highly recommend it.

As a teacher, I have my share of hilarious and obnoxious student stories so on the walk back to the shop, when it was just the two of us, I pumped her for some gossip. I was beyond curious to hear about her wacky clients – I just knew she had a few doozies. To her credit, she was incredibly professional and kept mum on any details (dammit) so talk turned to how an American girl like her ended up in Paris. These are things I need to know. It turns out that a boy brought her to Paris. A Parisian husband with Brittany origins whom she met in Boston. Just so you know, she highly recommends working/living in Paris. And a lovely Parisian husband, which she also recommends, makes that a bit easier for those of us outside the EU. Duly noted Ms. Karen. Duly noted.

As we continued to walk, talk turned to traditional dishes from her husband’s family and it was no surprise to me that Gateau Breton became the center of the conversation. Brittany is known for it’s butter, some of the best butter in the world. Bordier butter, if you know what I mean. A Gateau Breton is a beautiful and deceptively simple cake made with a lot of this gorgeous salted butter, a few eggs, flour, and vanilla. And that’s it. A classic example of a few good ingredients done right. Incredibly right.

Karen said the recipe came from her mother-in-law and she makes one every week with no fancy tools, just a wooden spoon and a big ‘ol bowl.  She and her husband particularly enjoy it for breakfast throughout the week. “Do you want the recipe?” and before I knew it, she started to rattle off ingredients. I dug through my bag for a piece of paper and shoved it in her face – “write it down!”

I was back in the countryside all of a day before I made this one afternoon, trying to remember all the little tips she mentioned but didn’t write down. Even though I made it incorrectly, too much butter if you can believe it, my friends devoured it and agreed it made for a particularly great breakfast.

I’ve made it several times in the States too, though with some adjustments to account for the lack of that gorgeous French butter. This is one of those recipes that will be good with regular grocery store ingredients but is really fantastic if you take a little care and pull out the good stuff. This is where you use that European style butter, the Plugra, accented with a good bit of fleur de sel. Farm eggs, with their bright orange yolks, are really nice if you can get them and they make for an incredibly deep yellow cake. This is also the time you use that vanilla bean you’ve been hoarding that is hopefully still soft and pliable. Don’t save these things people, these culinary souvenirs we all have a tendency to buy and wait for something special. Use them! Enjoy them! It’s a sad moment when you realize you’ve been saving that thing for a special occasion and it goes bad, stale and flavorless in the meantime.

So once you’ve got the basics gathered, it’s an incredibly easy recipe with a method familiar to anyone who’s made a batch of cookies or a homemade cake. It’s also dangerously delicious. I ate a good portion of one throughout the course of a week before I realized it was nearly gone. It really is great for breakfast. And lunch. And a late night snack.

If you’re heading to Paris or hope to, think about a culinary adventure with Jane’s company La Cuisine Paris. It’s a wonderful way to learn about the city and the culture through it’s food. She offers all kinds of classes and tours at various levels of experience so you’re sure to find something perfect.  It really is the best way to experience the city – you’ll develop some great memories and eat some delicious things too.

STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: OH HELL YES. One bite and you know, you just know. You know you want to be in Paris, eating this every morning. Maybe you’ll be transported with just a few bites. To share this with someone is sublime. It’s all buttery and rich and sucker punches you with a big hit of vanilla and rum. You take another slice because, well, you just can’t help yourself. And you wander off all happy with a big smile to face whatever the day throws your way. Butter, sugar, vanilla and maybe a little rum will do that to a person.

On this blog five years ago: Candied Yellow Tomatoes, Galette de Gayon – Fig, Walnut & Honey Galette
On this blog four years ago: Peach Sorbetto, Peach Frozen Custard
On this blog three years ago: Sweet Corn Soup
On this blog two years ago: Fig BBQ Sauce
On this blog last year: Bloody Mary Vinaigrette

GATEAU BRETON
Makes one 8” cake that serves around 12
I make the cake with my trusty Kitchen Aid but Karen said she uses a regular bowl and wooden spoon. If you’re so inclined, I think it counts as a workout.

16 Tablespoons salted butter* (2 sticks), room temperature
*if using unsalted butter add ¾ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 vanilla bean, scraped (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste)
2 ½ Tablespoons dark rum
1 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 large egg
½ teaspoon water

1. Line the bottom an 8” round pan with a circle of parchment and set aside until needed.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg yolks and mix on low until blended.
4. On low, mix in the scraped vanilla bean (just the seeds, not the pod) and rum. Scrape the bowl.
5. On low, add the flour and mix until just blended. Scrape the bowl and the beater and quickly mix in any remaining bits until you have a smooth batter. Try really hard not to eat the batter. You know, raw eggs and all that.
6. Scoop the batter into the prepared cake pan. With the parchment, this might be a little tricky as it has a tendency to slide around. So a tip is to place spoonfuls of the batter around the perimeter of the pan, then use a small offset spatula to evenly spread the batter. It’s easier to spread evenly if the batter adheres to the side of the pan first.
7. Chill for 45 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 325°F with a rack in the lower third.
9. Make the egg wash – whisk together the egg with the water until smooth.
10. Brush the chilled cake with an even layer of egg wash and put back in the fridge for 10 minutes.
11. With a fork, score the top of the cake in a crosshatch pattern wiping the fork clean between each pass.
12. Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown.
13. Let cool completely in the pan. Here’s the thing – this cake is really good warm but it is a little fussy to get out of the pan cleanly when it’s warm, even with the parchment circle.
14. Once cooled, run a paring knife around the edge of the cake, place a plate or cooling rack on top of the cake and flip. If the cake sticks a little, gently flip it back and put the pan directly on a burner for less than a minute to warm slightly. Try the flip again.
15. Pull the parchment off, discard and top with a serving plate. Quickly flip the cake back onto the plate.
16. This cake keeps …well I don’t really know exactly. Several days certainly. Probably longer if you can keep it around. The day it’s made, it’s very moist, buttery and rich but as it sits and dries out a bit, it becomes more shortbread-like.