My Gateau Breton (Breton butter cake) bake starts here, for the first ever "Everyone Bakes The Same Cake" weekend. #EBTSC
In this case, "everyone" might turn out to be just me, but we'll see!
Getting the ingredients measured out and ready, which is rare for me. I'm usually pretty slap-dash in the kitchen; peek at a recipe or two, then close the book!
Proper baking 'mise en place' going on right here!
Canadian cooking is kind of in the middle between UK and US. We use grams and ml, but also cups and spoons.
I personally don't use lbs and ounces at all, but I know some still do here.
Our packaging is pretty helpful. The butter for example has us covered in g, ml and cups, English and French.
Here's my prep for the Breton cake.
A leisurely prep makes the next steps easier. Getting the mixer ready now, starting the oven and clearing a spot in the freezer.
Getting into the greasing and mixing steps.
I'd normally do this by hand, but am putting the new-ish stand mixer to the test. It's a popular model, a "Cat Frightener 2000."
First half of the batter into the pan, and setting up in the freezer for a few minutes, before the adding of the Croatian apricot jam I'm trying to use up with this recipe.
The final step before baking is a fun glaze and scoring thing, as seen in these image search results.
Almost time for the jamminess
Apricot jam layer in place, with a bit of rum added. Thinking that'll add some nice flavour and thinned the jam a bit.
Back into freezer.
Top layer on the cake, glazing applied, traditional scoring marks on, and it's baking.
Not sure how much it puffs up. Some of the online pics look a bit like a grilled cheese sandwich. 😂
So it might be thin, but seems like it should be tasty.
Results! The Breton Butter Cake has emerged and it smells pretty great. Like the online pics it's a rather shallow cake but that seems to be the intent.
Eager to taste it. Interior pics in a few hours!
Notes! If you're going to try, a few minor thoughts…
Spreading the final batter over the filling, even w freezer help, is easier with a spatula dipped in warm water a few times.
The springform pan leaks a bit of butter as the batter starts cooking. A pan under it to catch drops would've been good earlier.
I think I'd use a middle oven shelf rather than upper middle if doing it again. Maybe at a slightly cooler temp, given convection fan was on. Maybe 340F for North American ovens.
@ottaross ok, I’m getting started on mine!
I got orange marmalade
Should I put some Cointreau in it?
How did the rum affect the freeze and how much did you use?
@colinburgess yay! A good idea. I think it did make the jam solidify a little less well. Maybe a bit longer in the freezer would've overcome that?
I used about a tablespoon and a half, but by spreading the top batter layer from the outside toward the center it seemed to cover okay after all. A wet spatula helped a bit too.
@ottaross ok, here we go!
I was really worried it was going to be too thin but it looks like it will be ok!
@ottaross I like that it’s basically a huge jammy shortbread biscuit :-)
Perfect with some tea
A late-evening dessert, sampling that Breton butter cake, and it's super tasty.
The texture of the almond-based crumb with the slightly-rummy apricot jam soaking into it is really bang on.
Best of luck to those trying it tomorrow for this weekend of "everybody bakes the same cake"
@LillyHerself @ottaross Agreed, very pretty. The egg wash and scoring are perfection.
Wish I had the time to do this, wanted to try the Breton Butter Cake recipe in NYT - very different, called for yeast.
@jamez_2_point_0 yay, well done!
Looks nice indeed! I'm eager to dig in to mine for dessert in a few hours.
@ottaross ounces are the devil. I always have to slow down and check for context as to whether they refer to volume or weight. Any recipe I know I will make again and again, I measure it per the recipe but put them on the scale and record the weights as I do.
I find this also supports tidier future prep. If I’m zeroing the scale between additions I can just tip them in and skip dirtying measuring spoons and cups!
@Chigaze I think they make good sense. They're not Imperial nor metric, they're just what we have around regardless of what country we're in.
Of course, different countries have subtle variations in those objects I guess.
Metric teaspoons are 5 ml and metric tablespoons are 15 ml.
US ones can be unreliable. The teaspoons are close enough not to matter but often the US tablespoons are 2.5 teaspoons rather than 3. (I went to grad school in the US and always had sets of both US and Metric volume measures).
The challenges of gluten-free baking made us switch to metric measurements with a scale. No volume measurements for flour here.
We have a nice DIY gluten-free blend of weight-to-weight all purpose plain flour that we’ll be using.
So, very happy to have a recipe where we don’t have to convert cups of wheat flour to grams.
@LillyHerself ugh, poorly tested recipes are scourge of the kitchen.
I remember one with vastly insufficient liquid that could barely moisten the dry ingredients. Then after mixing the method said to "pour" the result into a pan which made no sense at all.
Like you said though, the results look tasty at least. 😁
@ottaross And for anyone finding this later, here's my thread:
@ottaross I unfortunately don't have the time to bake today, nor can I find pictures, but yours reminds me a lot of the Dutch boterkoek (buttercake/cookie) I've enjoyed plenty of times, though minus the apricot filling. That addition does sound lovely though.
I do have a recipe in Markdown for the one I made last time though, which I'll share in a follow-up post.
Boterkoek / Dutch Buttercake / Nederlandsk Smørkake
Round Ø 24 cm/9 inch or square 20 x 20 cm/8 x 8 inch baking tin.
Rundt Ø 24 cm/9 inch eller firkant 20 x 20 cm/8 x 8 inch bakeform.
Ingredients
Steps
(I doubled all ingredients (except the lemon zest) and made it in Rusta's 35,5x27x5,5 cm Rustfritt stål ovnsform)
På norsk
(Jeg doblet alle ingredienser og laget kaken i Rusta's 35,5x27x5,5 cm Rustfritt stål ovnsform https://www.rusta.com/nb-no/hjem-og-innredning/husholdning/kasseroller-og-stekepanner/ovnsform-355x27x55-cm-rustfritt-stal )
Based on / basert på Laura's Bakery - Boterkoek / In Laura's Bakery - Dutch Buttercake
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