Rhubarb and Custard Tarte Tropezienne

with cardamom and a stresuel topping

Tarte Tropezienne is one of those recipes with a fanciful origin story, one of those stories that could so easily just be made up or folklore. In this case, the story appears to be true. The dish was created by a polish baker, inspired by a recipe of his grandmothers, in St Tropez and one summer, when Bridgette Bardot was in town filming her next movie, the star visited the bakery (or the baker was catering the film set, the story varies a little) and became smitten with the dish. It was her suggestion to name the dish after the town.

Classically the brioche is coated with pearl sugar and a orange blossom flower water is used to moisten the layers before a simple vanilla creme diplomat is used as the filling. As the dish grew in popularity, especially over the last 10-15 years, bakers started making more and more flavours and more fanciful versions. This version is large, like a birthday cake, and if you have people coming over I cant think of something more delicious to make.

The creme diplomat is one of my all time favourite fillings, its as light as a cloud and just so damn delicious. It starts with a classic vanilla pastry cream, although you could use any flavour of pastry cream, and you then fold through lightly whipped cream. You can use it to fill tart shells, as a doughnut filling or really anywhere a very light filling can be used. The key to making it is twofold. First the pastry cream needs to be throughly chilled and once ready to use, must be beaten until it is smooth and creamy, it is imperative the custard is lump free. The second key to success is not over whipping the cream. Whenever you are folding cream into another mixture it is always better to slightly uderwhipped the cream, it leaves the cream fluid and it will combine easier without knocking out air or creating a mixture that looks grainy or split.

I will admit there is quite a few elements to this dish but its very easy to break down into stages and make over a couple days if you prefer. The brioche itself benefits from an overnight rest in the fridge (much easier to handle when it’s cold) and can be left for up to two days if kept in an airtight container. The streusel can be made and refrigerated for 3-4 days in advance or even frozen up to a month before its needed. The pastry cream can be made 2-3 days in advance and the simple syrup keeps in a jar at room temperature for over a week.

Note: as per some requests last week you will know be able to find a printable PDF of the recipe at the bottom of every post