Quatre-quarts
The name says it all: four quarters — flour, butter, sugar and eggs by equal weight. It is the Breton pound cake you need no recipe to weigh out: weigh the eggs and match every other ingredient to them. Made well, quatre-quarts is dense, moist and intensely buttery, and its flavour depends entirely on the butter, which in Brittany means salted. The secret lies in creaming the butter and sugar thoroughly and having every ingredient at room temperature.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Batter 20 min
- Baking 60 min
- Cooling 70 min
Step by step
0 / 8 donePrepare the ingredients
Take the butter and eggs out an hour ahead. Weigh the shelled eggs — if they come to more or less than 200 g, match the other ingredients to that weight.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs (about 200 g, shelled) · 200 g salted butter, soft · 200 g sugar · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp rum (optional)
Heat the oven
Heat the oven to 170°C (top and bottom heat). Butter a 25 cm loaf tin and line it with paper. The batter comes to about 810 g, so the tin fills to roughly two thirds — that is the room the cake needs to rise.
Ingredients: 10 g butter for the tin
Cream butter and sugar
Cream the butter with the sugar for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy. This is the only aeration the cake gets.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs (about 200 g, shelled) · 200 g salted butter, soft · 200 g sugar · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp rum (optional)
Pale and fluffy after 5 minutes.Add the eggs
Add the eggs one at a time, beating about a minute after each. If the mixture starts to split, add a spoonful of flour.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs (about 200 g, shelled) · 200 g salted butter, soft · 200 g sugar · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp rum (optional)
One egg at a time — it must be absorbed.Fold in the flour
Sift the flour with the baking powder and fold it in with a spatula in three additions, only until combined. Add the vanilla and rum.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs (about 200 g, shelled) · 200 g salted butter, soft · 200 g sugar · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp rum (optional)
Fill the tin
Scrape the batter into the tin and level the top. For a neat crack, run a knife dipped in melted butter down the middle.
Ingredients: 10 g butter for the tin
A line down the middle gives an even crack.Bake
Bake 50–60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. A loaf from 810 g of batter needs all that time — take it out at 45 minutes and the middle stays raw. If the top browns too fast, cover it with foil after 30 minutes.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs (about 200 g, shelled) · 200 g salted butter, soft · 200 g sugar · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp rum (optional)
Cool
Cool in the tin 10 minutes, then turn out and cool on a rack at least an hour. Warm, the cake crumbles when sliced.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs (about 200 g, shelled) · 200 g salted butter, soft · 200 g sugar · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 tbsp rum (optional)
Before you start
Salted butter
Bretons bake this with salted butter, ideally with salt crystals. With unsalted butter, add half a teaspoon of salt to the flour — the difference is clear.
Variations
Add lemon zest, 100 g of raisins soaked in rum or 100 g of chopped chocolate. The baking time stays the same.
Storage
Wrapped, it keeps 4 days at room temperature and grows moister by the day. It freezes in slices for 3 months.
