Gâteau basque
A short, buttery almond pastry baked around a filling of pastry cream or black cherry jam, the top glazed and scored.
What makes it gâteau basque
- A rich pastry, somewhere between cake and biscuit, with almond and butter.
- Pastry cream or black cherry jam — one or the other.
- Glazed with egg and scored on top.
Where it comes from
It's a cake of the French Basque country, long made at home — its Basque name, etxeko biskotxa, means house cake — and later sold by the pastry shops of Cambo-les-Bains and Bayonne. Cambo holds a festival for it.
The older filling is black cherry jam, from the cherries of Itxassou; pastry cream is now the more common. Bakers often mark the top with the lauburu, the Basque cross.
How it varies
- À la crème
- Pastry cream, often scented with rum or almond.
- Aux cerises
- Black cherry jam — the older filling.
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Start your own gâteau basqueNo one here has made gâteau basque yet. Start it as v1, and every version after is an experiment the next cook can learn from.
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