Sour Cherry Coconut Gateau Basque

Second Helpings #25

Hi!

This recipe was supposed to be with you last week, but something happened. Overconfidence happened, and it led to my downfall, well it led to a disastrous first test of this recipe, an embarrassing buffet of rookie errors. Gateau Basque is a relatively simple dish, a buttery crust filled with either cherry jam or custard and, more often than not, both. The gateau is a close relative to the Gateau Breton, another French dish I have made many times - it should have been so easy. I somehow managed to use too small of a mould and also added too much baking powder. Both of these errors in judgment led to a gateau that exploded, rather dramatically, over the sides of the tart tin. The gateau, and its overhanging pastry skirt, baked up nice and crisp all over the baking tray. I like things baked ‘bien cuit’, but this was more of a bonfire than well-browned. So, before I shared the recipe with you, I needed to dial down on the recipe and make something with as little room for error as possible.

The dough for this type of cake (is it a cake? Is it a pastry? I think it probably defies categorisation) is a cross between cake and pastry, like a cakey cookie. It gets its texture from a generous amount of butter, a little baking powder for lift and lots of egg yolks for richness. Working with the dough can be tricky, it's like working with a pastry with too much butter; it can get very soft very quickly. In this recipe, the fridge is your friend. The filling is traditionally a classic pastry cream or a cherry jam, and as I already mentioned, quite often, it's a mix of the two. I didn’t want to drift too far away from the original for my version, but I had coconut on my mind and wanted to incorporate that into the finished dish somehow. I also love sour cherries so I wanted to switch out sweet cherries for the tart variety.

For the coconut element, it felt natural to go with the custard; a coconut cream pie meets gateau Basque. Yes, please! On my first test, I toasted 100g of desiccated coconut and mixed that with a coconut cream-based pastry cream that was enriched with coconut oil. Triple coconut? That sounds great, right? It tasted fantastic, but I missed the silky smooth texture of a classic pastry cream, so I decided to keep things simple, ditch the toasted coconut and stick with a silky smooth coconut milk pastry cream paired with a sour cherry filling. The result was fantastic, but if you are missing the added texture, feel free to add the desiccated coconut back into the custard.

Sour Cherry and Coconut Gateau Basque

Serves 10-12

Dough

250g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

150g unsalted butter, room temperature

125g caster sugar

4 large egg yolks

Coconut Pastry Cream

400ml can of coconut milk

100ml whole milk

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 large eggs

4 large egg yolks

50g cornstarch

150g caster sugar

40g unsalted butter

Sour Cherry Filling

200g sour cherry jam/preserve* see the recipe below for more detail

To make this recipe you will need either a 9-inch loose-bottomed tart tin or cake tin. You can use either style but they need to be 3.5cm high.

To make the dough mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the yolks one at a time, beating together until fully combined. Add the flour mixture and mix together until a soft dough is formed. Scrape the mixture onto the work surface and divide into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other.

This dough is very rich in butter and because the butter and sugar is beaten together until lightened it can become very soft, very quickly, when you roll it out so there is a simple step you can take to make things a little easier. Once you have divided the dough, form each piece into a ball and place it between two pieces of clingfilm or parchment paper. Take the base from your 9-inch loose bottom tart or cake tin and use it to press the dough into a flat disc. These discs of dough will be very nice and round and close to the finished size they need to be, reducing how much rolling out will be needed once the dough is chilled.

Transfer the discs of dough to the fridge and rest for about 4 hours or until firm. You can also make this dough a day ahead.

For the pastry cream place the coconut milk, whole milk, vanilla and half of the sugar into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile add the eggs, yolks, cornstarch and the remaining sugar to a large bowl and whisk together until smooth. Once the milk mixture is at temperature remove from the heat and pour over the egg mixture whilst whisking to combine, to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Pour the custard mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium/high heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the custard has thickened. Allow the custard to cook for a further minute or two, to ensure the cornstarch is fully cooked out. Scrape the custard back into the bowl, add the butter and whisk together until fully combined. Press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface of the custard and refrigerate until fully chilled, at least four hours. The pastry cream can also be prepared a day ahead if you prefer.

Note: If you want to add more coconut flavour to the custard you can add 100g toasted desiccated coconut as I did in my first test of this recipe or you also add a couple of drops of coconut extract to the finished custard

For the sour cherry filling I use a shop-bought cherry preserve, this one to be exact. I like it because it's low in sugar so retains the wonderful tart flavour of sour cherries. The only problem is this style of preserve can be a little runny so it needs a little thickening before use. Why? Simply because if the cherry mixture is too liquid it can cause the custard to split as the gateau bakes. To thicken the preserve mix together 2 tsp cornflour and 2 tsp water and mix this together with the cherry preserve. Scrape this mixture into a small saucepan and cook, stirring constantly until the preserve comes to a simmer and thickens. Scrape the cherry mixture into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cool. If you can only get your hands on regular cherry jam this step isn’t necessary.

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan).

To assemble the gateau, remove the larger of the two pieces of dough and on a lightly floured work surface roll out into a circle that is 30cm in diameter, just wide enough to line your mould. If the dough feels soft or warm transfer to the fridge to chill before using. It is much harder to use if the dough has warmed up. Gently drape the chilled dough into your loosed-bottomed tart or cake tin, pressing into the sides of the tin. Trim away any excess so that you have a nice neatly lined cake tin. Add the cooled cherry preserve and spread into an even layer that covers the base. Remove the pastry cream from the fridge and beat until smooth. Scrape the custard into a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip and pipe in the filling. You do not have to pipe the filling if you prefer not to, it simply helps you leave the cherry jam undisturbed underneath, giving you a nice neat layering effect; otherwise, you can simply scrape it on top of the cherry mixture and gently spread out into an even layer.

Roll out the second piece of dough, just until it is 9 inches in diameter. Drape atop the gateau and trim away any excess. I like to do this by rolling a rolling pin over the cake tin, as this both trims away the excess dough and presses the top crust and the bottom crust together. Brush the top of the gateau with a beaten egg yolk and use the tines of a fork to draw a pattern atop the gateau. Traditionally this would be some sort of simple cross-hatch pattern but you can use whatever pattern you like, or skip the step entirely.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 50-60 minutes or until the crust is a deep golden brown. Remove the baked gateau from the oven and set aside until fully cooled, at least 2 hours. Stored in the fridge the gateau will keep for up to three days.