Basque Cake

The Basque cake appeared in the 17th century in Cambo. The first versions were filled with fruit jam, including the famous black cherry of Itxassou. At the end of the 19th century the version with cream appeared. In Basque “etxe-ko biskotx-a” means the cake of the house! I propose here a recipe of almond cream perfumed with amber rum. For the black cherry, simply replace the cream filling with jam! Recipe dedicated to the little Margot!

Cake batter:

-1 egg + 3 yolks
-300g of flour
-220g of soft butter
-30g of almond powder
-200g of sugar
-1 pinch of salt

Almond cream:
-230g of whole milk
-3 egg yolks
-90g of sugar
-20g of whole milk powder
-25g of butter
-20g of cornstarch
-40g of almond powder
-20ml of amber rum
-1 vanilla bean or a pinch of vanilla powder

Start by preparing the cream.
Boil the milk with the vanilla bean split in half.

Using an electric whisk , mix the yolks, sugar and whole milk powder until they turn white.

Add cornstarch and vanilla powder if using instead of the bean.

Whisk well and add the hot milk.

Return to low heat and cook until the cream boils.

Add butter, rum and almond powder. Mix well and remove from heat.

Put the cream in a bowl and put a piece of cling film directly on it, the contact with the cream will prevent it from drying out as it cools! When the cream is at room temperature, store it in the refrigerator.

Now prepare the cake batter. Place soft butter and sugar in a bowl and mix well.

Add the egg and yolks.

And finally the flour and almond powder. You may notice that I don’t use yeast. I wanted as a reference the delicious cake of Pariès, which obviously does not use any! The cake keeps more of its crispness by inflating less.

Make a ball, place it in a film and refrigerate for one hour.

Bernard’s advice:
To roll out the dough without making a mess, I recommend putting a ball of dough on a piece of parchment paper, crushing it a little and then placing a second piece of paper on top. The dough is now between two sheets and can be rolled out without adding flour, the work table and the rolling pin will remain clean!
Place the dough between the sheets in a cool place to set
Roll out the dough a little, then peel off the sheets one by one like a decal.

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Roll out two thirds of the dough between the two sheets to a thickness of about 5-6 mm. For the cake in the picture I used an 18 cm diameter pie circle, but I still have enough dough for a smaller cake. You can easily make a larger cake up to 24cm!

Foncer (put the dough in…) a mold with removable edge or a pie circle as on the picture.

Don’t forget to grease the molds before casting them! I use the fat bomb as I explained in the canelés recipe.

Spread the cream on the dough.

Spread the last third of the dough as before and close the cake like a pie. Cut off excess dough. Draw designs on the dough, from Basque crosses to simple lines!