This is the seasonal dessert I look forward to making as soon as spring arrives: a delicious tart from northern Brittany where strawberries are exquisite and plentiful. The thick crust is a gâteau Breton—Brittany’s most iconic cake, laden with the region’s beloved delicacy: salted butter (see tip). As it’s so irresistibly rich and buttery, a gâteau Breton is usually enjoyed on its own, but its firm structure makes it an outstanding crust in this dessert. It gets topped with crème pâtissière and fresh strawberries, left as they are.
The buttery gâteau Breton, the velvety crème pâtissière, the juicy strawberries … it is a bliss of perfectly combined textures and flavors. Plus, the assembly is as simple as it gets, so you don’t need any decorative skills to make this rustic tart look as fabulous as it tastes.
SERVES 6 TO 8 / MAKES 1 TART
For the Gâteau Breton
¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
1⅓ cups plus 1 tbsp (175 g) all-purpose flour
¾ cup (150 g) sugar
½ tsp fleur de sel or sea salt flakes
1 large egg plus 4 large egg yolks, divided
½ tsp vanilla extract (or ½ vanilla bean paste)
1 tsp milk
For the Crème Pâtissière
1 cup (250 ml) milk (2% or whole)
½ tsp vanilla extract (or seeds from ½ vanilla bean)
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
3 tbsp (38 g) sugar
2 tbsp (17 g) flour
1½ tbsp (11 g) cornstarch
For Topping
5½ cups (790 g) fresh strawberries
To make the gâteau Breton, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4), with a rack in the lower middle. Grease a circular 9-inch (23-cm) cake pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, sugar and fleur de sel. Dig a well in the middle and add in the butter, the egg, 3 egg yolks and the vanilla. Mix with a wooden spoon until just incorporated. Transfer the thick batter into the prepared pan, and spread it evenly. Mix the remaining egg yolk with the milk, and brush it evenly onto the surface of the cake batter. Bake for 35 minutes, until golden. Transfer onto a cooling rack.
To make the crème pâtissière, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm up the milk and vanilla. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk and sugar until lighter in color and fluffy. Whisk in the flour and cornstarch. When the milk is simmering, pour it into the egg mixture, and whisk until just incorporated. Transfer back into the saucepan, whisk occasionally and remove from the heat as soon as it begins to simmer. Pour into a clean bowl, and cover the crème with plastic wrap; the wrap should touch the whole surface of the crème to prevent a skin from forming. Set aside to cool.
To assemble the tart, place the gâteau Breton onto a serving plate. Spread a thick layer of the crème pâtissière all over the top (about ¾ inch [2 cm] thick). Wash, drain and halve the strawberries; keep some stems if you wish, for a pop of green. Gently place them on top of the crème in a circular pattern.
FRENCH PANTRY TIP: In the northwestern part of France, salted butter or “beurre salé” is often the way to go. The rest of France typically uses unsalted butter or “beurre doux,” slightly salted butter or “beurre demi-sel,” lard, duck fat or olive oil. Salted butter from France is about 3% to 5% more salted than the butter found in North America and the U.K. To re-create the same salty bite in recipes, I like to add a sprinkle of fleur de sel or coarse sea salt flakes to unsalted butter.
