Gâteau battu
Gâteau battu, “beaten cake”, is a long-standing speciality of Picardy, baked for family celebrations and feast days. It is brioche taken to an extreme: 10 egg yolks and 300 g of butter for 500 g of flour, and the dough is so soft that it is not kneaded but beaten — once by hand, now with a mixer — for a quarter of an hour. It is baked in a tall fluted mould and domes above the rim in the oven. The crumb is intensely yellow, feather-light and buttery. It is eaten for breakfast, with rhubarb compote or simply with coffee.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Starter 15 min
- Beating the dough 25 min
- Rising in the mould 150 min
- Baking 45 min
- Cooling 60 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the starter
Crumble the yeast into the lukewarm milk with the sugar and leave 15 minutes until frothy.
Ingredients: 20 g fresh yeast · 60 ml lukewarm milk · 1 tsp sugar
Combine
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Add the starter, yolks and eggs and mix on low until combined.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 10 pcs egg yolks · 2 pcs eggs · 100 g sugar · 10 g salt · 300 g butter, very soft · 15 g butter for the mould
Ten yolks — hence the colour.Beat the dough
Raise the speed to medium and beat 10 minutes, until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl. It will be loose and very sticky — that is normal.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 10 pcs egg yolks · 2 pcs eggs · 100 g sugar · 10 g salt · 300 g butter, very soft · 15 g butter for the mould
Add the butter
Add the soft butter a spoonful at a time, still beating, until each is absorbed. Once all the butter is in, beat 5 minutes more, until glossy and elastic.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 10 pcs egg yolks · 2 pcs eggs · 100 g sugar · 10 g salt · 300 g butter, very soft · 15 g butter for the mould
The dough is beaten, not kneaded.Fill the mould
Butter thoroughly a tall fluted brioche mould or a kugelhopf (tube) mould of about 3 litres. Scrape in the dough (about 1.3 kg) — it will fill the mould roughly halfway.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 10 pcs egg yolks · 2 pcs eggs · 100 g sugar · 10 g salt · 300 g butter, very soft · 15 g butter for the mould
Leave to rise
Cover with a cloth and leave somewhere warm (about 24–26°C, no warmer or the butter starts to seep out) for 2–2.5 hours, until the dough is nearly at the rim — about 1–2 cm below. A dough this rich in butter and yolks rises slowly.
Ingredients: 20 g fresh yeast · 60 ml lukewarm milk · 1 tsp sugar
Nearly to the rim — it takes time.Bake
Towards the end of the rise heat the oven to 180°C. Bake 40–45 minutes (50–55 minutes in a mould without a central tube), until deep golden on top and a skewer comes out clean. If the top darkens too fast, cover with foil after 25 minutes.
Ingredients: 20 g fresh yeast · 60 ml lukewarm milk · 1 tsp sugar
Cool
Cool in the mould 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool at least an hour. Warm, it is too delicate to slice. Serve with rhubarb jam or compote.
Ingredients: 20 g fresh yeast · 60 ml lukewarm milk · 1 tsp sugar
Before you start
The whites
Ten yolks leave ten whites. Freeze them in a container — thawed, they make meringues, macarons or an egg-white omelette.
Without a mixer
Traditionally the dough was beaten by hand for 20–25 minutes, lifting it and slapping it against the bowl. It can be done, but a stand mixer with a paddle makes it far easier.
Storage
Wrapped, it keeps 2–3 days at room temperature. Stale, it makes excellent French toast. It freezes in slices for 2 months.
