Recipe - Gateau Basque (Custard Tart From The Pays Bas

160 g Butter (5 2/3 oz)
160 g Sugar (5 2/3 oz)
2 Eggs
240 g Flour (8 One half oz)
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Orange flower water
2 dl Creme patissiere (7 fl oz)
1 Egg yolk mixed with 1 tb
milk
Butter for the tin
Flour for the tin

EQUIPMENT
1 Cake tin, about 18cm/7in
diameter, 5cm/2in deep
Piping bag

Using a bowl and whisk, beat the butter until smooth; add the sugar and
beat for 3 minutes. Still beating, add first one egg, then the other and
finally beat in the flour, baking powder and orange flower water. The
mixture should be very smooth.

Preheat the oven to 200 oC / 400 oF.

Butter the inside of the cake tin and sprinkle with flour. Turn over the
tin and tap out the excess flour. Fill the piping bag with some of the
eggsugar...mixture. Starting from the outside and working inwards, pipe
the mixture into a spiral so that the bottom of the tin is entirely
covered, with no gaps between the spirals.

Carefully spoon the creme patissiere into the centre of the tin, spread it
out slightly, but leave at least 2 cm / Three fourths in uncovered all round the edge
of the tin.

Continue to pipe spirals from the outside inwards, piping one on top of the
other, so that the creme patissiere is complerely enclosed on all sides by
the eggsugar...mixture.

Brush the top of the tart with the egg yolkmilkmixture, score a lattice
pattern with a fork and cook in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Leave to cool, then unmould on to a wire rack.

Serving

Accompanied by some homemade jam or, better still, redcurrant jelly.

(Albert and Michel Roux, The Roux brothers, French country cooking, M
Papermac, 1992, ISBN 0333576705)