Tarte tropézienne
First baked in Saint-Tropez in the 1950s by Alexandre Micka, a pastry cook of Polish origin; the well-known story has Brigitte Bardot suggesting the name while he was supplying a film set. Despite the name it is not a tart but a brioche, split and filled. The cream is its most interesting part: pastry cream combined with butter and whipped cream, so it is as thick as a buttercream but as light on the palate as cream.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Brioche dough 25 min
- Rising 180 min
- Cream 15 min
- Baking 30 min
- Cooling 120 min
- Assembly 20 min
- Chilling before serving 30 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead the brioche and work in the butter
Combine the flour, eggs, milk with the yeast, sugar, salt and orange blossom water and knead 10 minutes. Then add the soft butter a piece at a time, waiting for each to be absorbed. The dough must turn smooth and pull away from the bowl — another 10 minutes.
Ingredients: 350 g bread flour · 3 pcs eggs · 60 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 45 g sugar · 1 tsp salt · 150 g butter · 1 tbsp orange blossom water
Smooth and pulling from the bowl — butter goes in piece by piece.Prove the dough twice
Leave it to double (90 minutes), knock back, shape into a 24 cm round on a tray and prove again (90 minutes). Make the pastry cream (next step) meanwhile. Brioche with this much butter rises slowly — do not force it with heat, or the butter renders out.
Ingredients: 350 g bread flour · 3 pcs eggs · 60 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 45 g sugar · 1 tsp salt · 150 g butter · 1 tbsp orange blossom water
Cook the vanilla pastry cream
Bring the milk to a boil with a split vanilla pod, temper the yolks beaten with sugar and cornflour and cook 2 minutes past thickening — about 15 minutes in all. Remove the pod, cover with film touching the surface and chill completely in the fridge, at least 2 hours — warm cream would melt the butter instead of combining with it.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 100 g sugar · 45 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 100 g butter · 200 ml whipping cream (36%)
Glaze and scatter with pearl sugar
Heat the oven to 175°C. Brush the risen round with beaten egg and scatter generously with pearl sugar. This sugar does not melt in the oven and gives crunchy nuggets on top — the only element of contrast in a very soft cake.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg · 60 g pearl sugar · 15 g icing sugar
Generously — pearl sugar does not melt in the oven.Bake golden and cool completely
Bake 28 minutes at 175°C, until deep gold and hollow-sounding. Cool 2 hours on a rack. A warm brioche cannot be split evenly, and the cream would melt into it instantly.
Ingredients: 350 g bread flour · 3 pcs eggs · 60 ml milk · 15 g fresh yeast · 45 g sugar · 1 tsp salt · 150 g butter · 1 tbsp orange blossom water
Combine the cream with butter and whipped cream
Whip the very cold cream to stiff peaks. Beat the cold pastry cream smooth, work in the soft butter a spoonful at a time, and finally fold in the whipped cream. The butter gives body and lets the cream hold its shape between the layers; the whipped cream takes away its heaviness.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 100 g sugar · 45 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 100 g butter · 200 ml whipping cream (36%)
Split the brioche and pipe the cream
Split the brioche horizontally with a long knife and pipe the cream in a spiral over the bottom half, 2 cm deep. A piping bag rather than a spoon: the layer comes out even and the cake does not push cream out of the sides when cut.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 100 g sugar · 45 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 100 g butter · 200 ml whipping cream (36%)
A piped spiral — even layer, nothing escapes.Cover and chill before serving
Set the top half in place, dust with icing sugar and chill 30 minutes. Serve cool but not straight from the fridge — cold butter in the cream firms up and loses its creaminess. A quarter of an hour in the kitchen is enough.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg · 60 g pearl sugar · 15 g icing sugar
Before you start
Orange blossom water
This is what gives the tropézienne its Provençal character and separates it from an ordinary cream-filled brioche. One tablespoon is enough — more and the cake starts smelling of perfume. Half a teaspoon can also go into the cream.
Pearl sugar
Ordinary sugar dissolves and gives no crunch. Pearl (nib) sugar is sold in baking shops. As a substitute, use crushed sugar cubes — close, if less regular.
A day in the fridge, no longer
A cream-filled brioche is eaten the same day or the next. After that the crumb soaks and loses structure. The brioche alone can be baked a day ahead and kept in a plastic bag — then the cream is made in the morning.
