Basque black cherry cake from Itaxssou

Ingredients:5 to 6 people

• dough:flour
  300 g + 1 tablespoon for the mold
• butter
  150 g + 20 g for the mould
• powdered sugar
  150g
• fine salt
  1 pinch
• baking powder
  1/2 sachet
• whole egg
  1
• egg yolks
  3
• rum
  1 tablespoon (for a cream-filled cake)
• untreated lemon (for a cake filled with jam).
  1
• Garnish:black cherry jam from Itxassou (AOC)
  250 to 300 g (about 1 jar)
• cream:milk
  25 cl
• vanilla
  1/2 clove
• whole egg
  1
• egg yolks
  2
• flour
  40g

Preparation:

Difficulty:[usr 3]

This is the traditional cake of the Basque Country. An oral tradition has it that the oldest version is a cake filled with black cherry jam from Itxassou - this jam which also accompanies so superbly the sheep's cheese from the Pyrenees - but today we tend more and more towards it prefer its dressed-up version which consists of filling it with pastry cream flavored with rum.

I give you both toppings but prefer the jam

If the cake is to be filled with cream, prepare the latter first so that it has time to thicken a little.

The cream:

• Boil the milk with the vanilla and set aside.
• In a terrine, whisk the whole egg and the yolks with the powdered sugar until you obtain a creamy mixture, then incorporate the flour, without stopping beating, then thin out little by little with the milk (after having removed the vanilla) , pour into a saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly with a spatula. Remove from heat and flavor with rum (more or less according to taste). Leave to rest (you can even prepare it the day before).

The Dough:

• In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Make a fountain, break in the whole egg and 2 yolks, add the butter softened at room temperature and cut into small pieces, as well as the perfume; rum if the cake is filled with cream, lemon zest if it is filled with jam. Work first with a wooden spoon, then knead by hand until the dough no longer sticks to your fingers and is very homogeneous, roll into a ball and let it rest for 1 hour in a cool place.
• Divide the dough into two parts (two-thirds and one-third) and roll out the larger one into a thick sheet, using a rolling pin or, better still, by hand, crushing it with your fist, as it is difficult to spread . Fill a previously buttered and floured cake tin with it, extending the dough by about 1 cm around the entire edge of the tin and garnish with the cream or jam as desired.
• Roll out the rest of the pastry in the lid, place it on the filling and seal the edges well to the bottom pastry, with wet fingers.
• Brush the surface with the last egg yolk, dilute with a little water, and streak the surface of the pastry in concentric circles with the tines of a fork. Bake at medium height, in an oven previously heated to 200°C (th.6/7), cook for 20 minutes, then lower the oven to medium at 180°C (th.5/6) and finish cooking for 20 minutes.
• Let stand for a moment just out of the oven, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool. Slide onto a round serving platter to present warm (I prefer) or cold.