Welcome back to How I Cook,
It’s my birthday today, so I’ve baked a sort of cake…
I like cake. No, I love cake. Most years growing up I’d look forward to a strawberry victoria sponge on my birthday, lovingly made by either my mum or grandma. Super simple and utterly delicious. These days, when it comes to baking, I’m pastry ‘til I die. This is probably down to habit (I made an awful lot of pastry and baked almost no cakes during my restaurant career) and also the fact that I find the meticulous process of perfect pastry incredibly satisfying.
So, with that in mind, today’s recipe is a version of a Gâteau Basque, a completely irresistible pie/tart packed with pastry cream, fresh cherries and almonds. If you like a bakewell tart, then this dessert is very much for you.
I’ve made it a bunch of times over the years and have been dreaming of this bay and orange version for a hot minute.
Happy baking!
B x
Birthdays get weirder the more you have, so I like to cushion them with delicious baked things and meals either side. This year, I’m going all out with a slightly more complex bake. Don’t be afraid, whilst there are a few finicky moments, the pay off is so, so worth it. We’re keeping the preamble pretty brief this week, and getting straight to cooking. Cherry and bay leaf custard pie… Let’s go!
CHERRIES
A classic Gâteau Basque is made using black Xapata cherries, native to the Basque Country (duh). These are of course extremely tasty, but we grow stunning cherries here in the UK, so I’ll be using those! You want to try and find the biggest, juiciest cherries possible. We’re coming into the season now, and it’ll run until early september. Look for cherries that are glossy, have taught skin and ideally still have the stem attached. You can slice these up but I like to keep them whole, punching the pit straight out. But how?!
DIY CHERRY PITTER
If you can see pitting cherries or olives in your future, you might want to invest in one of these, but if you don’t fancy the financial commitment, the easiest way to whip the stone out of a cherry is using the humble chopstick. It honestly works wonders here, the pointy end is perfect for prying out the pit. If your cherries are beautifully ripe, the pit should be easy to pop out. If it sticks to the flesh, chances are your cherries aren’t quite ready!
A word of warning, do not wear your best white shirt whilst doing this and if you’re not into your hands getting stained red, I’d wear some gloves. I can look a bit like a murder scene once you’re all done.
PASTRY
The pastry we’ll be making today is called pâte sablée. It looks just like normal sweet pastry right? I mean, it’s pretty damn close. The only difference is it’s made using softened butter rather than cold butter. You whip the butter and sugar together until super fluffy before incorporating the eggs and then beating in the dry ingredients, fully incorporating the butter through the pastry. When making classic sweet pastry or pâte sucrée, cold butter is rubbed into flour and then brought together with some form of hydration (water or eggs) this means the butter is almost suspended in the flour, rather than the dough being completely homogenous. This results in a flakier, slightly more robust pastry. Pâte sablée is ultra crumbly and short and has a super rich, buttery flavour. It’s delicious stuff but this pastry is pretty wild to work with. It can be super sticky and it must be very cold when it’s rolled out. You want to work as ast as you can, and with confidence.
BAY & BAKING
Infusing flavour into a custard is a task usually left to vanilla, but today we’re going to try something a little different. Bay has an amazing sweet, spicy aroma and pairs beautifully with vanilla. You absolutely need to be using fresh bay leaves for this recipe, if you’ve only got dry, don’t even bother! You need the vibrant, aromat packed essential oils found in fresh leaves to really make this sing. The custard can also take a good whack of flavour, you’ll need about 15-20 leaves, so if you’ve got some growing in your garden, bonus. If not, ask a neighbour nicely or pop down to the shop and buy a couple of packs.
Be sure to give them a good scrunch before they hit the hot milk. This will crack and split the cell walls and get those essential oils flowing.
MIX IT UP
If cherries aren’t your jam, mix up the flavours. I made a delicious poached apple and blackberry Gâteau Basque in 2021 that was extremely tasty. You could add raspberries, blueberries, roasted bananas, anything goes!
CHERRY & BAY GÂTEAU BASQUE
This will make a tart that will comfortably feed 8-10.
INGREDIENTS
For the Pâte Sablée
250g Unsalted Butter
190g Caster Sugar
Zest of 1 Orange
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 Whole Egg
1 Egg Yolk
1/2 Tsp Almond Extract
260g Plain Flour
70g Ground Almonds
3g Fine Salt
For the Bay Leaf Crème Pâtissière
750g Whole Milk
190g Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Paste
12g Fresh Bay Leaves (about 18 bay leaves)
180g Egg Yolk
60g Cornflour
3g Salt
To Assemble
200g Pitted Fresh Cherries
1 Egg, beaten
2 Tsp Caster Sugar
METHOD
Start by making the pastry. Add the butter, sugar and citrus zest to a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Don’t be shy here, you really want to get some air into this mixture before adding the eggs so it doesn’t split! Once your mixture is good and fluffy, add the whole egg and beat it in. Once fully incorporated, beat in the yolk and the almond extract. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, ground almonds and salt. Beat into the butter mixture until you have a thick, paste like pastry. Now, it’s going to resemble cake mix more than pastry here, but don’t panic, that’s how it’s supposed to look.
Lay a couple of pieces of clingfilm onto your work surface and spoon two thirds of the pastry out onto one and a third onto the other. Lay another sheet over each of the piles of pastry and press each into a disc. Wrap the up and pop into the fridge for at least a few hours, but ideally overnight.
To make the bay crème pâtissière, pour the milk into a saucepan along with half of the sugar. Set over a medium-low heat and bring to just below a simmer, whisking to dissolve the sugar. Add the vanilla paste and scrunch up and add the bay leaves. Set aside for at least half an hour to infuse.
Tip the other half of the sugar into a bowl with the egg yolk, cornflour and salt. Whisk together until fluffy and slightly paler in colour. Once the milk has had some time to infuse, bring back to just below a simmer. Place a sieve or strainer over the egg mixture and pour the hot milk over in thirds, whisking between each addition to slowly temper the yolks and bring them up to temperature. Discard the bay leaves.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and place back over a medium heat. Cook for 4-5 mins, whisking constantly. There’ll be a moment when the foam on top dissipates and the custard begins to thicken significantly. Drop the heat to low, keep whisking and cook the custard for another 3-4 mins. It should start to plop and bubble a little. Once it’s had a good few mins of cooking, pass it through a sieve into a clean bowl. Add cling film to the top and allow to cool at room temperature before sliding into the fridge for a few hours to chill completely.
Grab your larger disc of pastry from the fridge and dust generously with flour. Working quickly, roll the pastry out to a thickness of just below 1 cm. Use the sheet to line a 25cm loose-bottomed tart tin. You want to work quick here. As the pastry warms it can get super sticky and a little fragile. If there’s any cracking or holes in the pastry, you can just patch them up with some excess or by together.
Spread the crème pâtissière over the base of the tart and top with the fresh pitted cherries. Roll the smaller quantity of pastry out into a disc just larger than the tart. Lay it over the top as your lid and press around the edge to seal. Trim any excess pastry, brush the top with egg wash and place the tart back into the fridge for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Once hot, give the tart another quick egg wash and slide into the oven for 45-50 mins. Bake until a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 mins or so before removing from the tin. Allow to cool for a further half hour or so before slicing and serving warm with some cherry molasses and a little cold crème fraîche.
If You’re Feeling Sinister by Belle and Sebastian
I’ve not visited Glasgow IRL, but feel like I know the city a little thanks to a couple of wholly gloomy books from Douglas Stuart. His writing is pretty dark and paints a glum picture of the Scottish city and way of life. In reality however, creative energy seems to flow out of that city, especially music.
Discovered and thoroughly enjoyed on the school bus. In my teens I didn’t really appreciate the beauty of the writing on this record, I thought it was a bit lame to be honest. Re-listening as I enter my 30s, it’s cemented as one of my favourite Indie Pop albums, delivering great writing, lovely piano and all the preppy charm of a good Vampire Weekend record.
Album Highlights: Seeing Other People, Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying, Judy and the Dream of Horses
Tucking In by Sophie Wyburd
A pal of mine,
, has just released her debut cookbook! We celebrated her launch last night at the lovely Gladwell’s in Camberwell. South East London is lucky to have her! The book is a real joy, packed with comforting, simple, thoughtful recipes for every occasion. Sure, I’m a little bias. Sophie hired me at into one of the most exciting jobs I’ve ever had, and was one of the best bosses I ever had. I urge you to pick up a copy, it’s a very good cookbook indeed.Some personal fave recipes that I’m itching to make include; chicken butter, pancetta and leek tagliatelle, lamb neck and olive orzo and hazelnut tiramisu. Big yum. Grab a copy here.
Thanks for reading,
Appreciate ya,
B x
Fabulous 😍
Of course I see this as I'm pausing my frequent bakes to go on a brief diet. This looks amazing 🍒 Happy birthday!