Basque Cake

I was watching the latest episode of The Big C today.  Cathy was making a Thanksgiving dinner with all her favorite sides and invited her friend and clinical trial buddy Lee.  He said that his favorite dish at Thanksgiving was a Basque cake that his mother used to make.  Cathy said she would make one for him.  I never heard of a Basque cake and of course first looked it up as Bask - nothing there.  Then remembered he said it was French so once I spelled it right I was able to find it.  I'm going to try making it because it looks pretty good.  I found two recipes that I'm including here.  One gives instructions in 10 steps and the other makes it seem much more complicated but it is more detailed, so I'm going to include them both here.

The first one comes from Cuisine France

Region	Prep time / Cooking time
Basque	45 min / 45 min
Ingredients:
Pastry: 1 egg 1 egg yolk 2 cups flour 10 tb butter, unsalted 1 cup sugar 1 lemon 1/2 tsp salt Cream: 1 cup milk 2 egg yolks 1 egg 1/4 cup flour 1 tb butter, unsalted 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 vanilla bean (or vanilla extract) 1 tsp rum

Basque Cake Recipe (serve 6)
Step 1: Grate the zest from the lemon.
Step 2: Mix lemon zest, egg, egg yolk, sugar and salt in a bowl for the pastry.
Step 3: Beat the mixture. Incorporate slowly the butter, then the flour.
Step 4: Work the pastry with your hands. Roll it into a ball and rest in a fridge for at least one hour.
Step 5: Combine the milk and the vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove the bean.
Step 6: Beat the sugar and egg yolks. Stir in the flour and the rum. Add slowly the hot milk. Bring the cream back into the saucepan and cook over very low heat. Stir the mixture. Remove from the heat when the cream begins to boil. Put the butter. Let the cream cool.
Step 7: Preheat the oven at 380 F (200 C).
Step 8: Butter a round cake pan. Roll out two third of the pastry. Line the bottom and sides. Fill with the cream. Cover with the remaining pastry.
Step 9: Beat an egg. Brush it the top of the cake.
Step 10: Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
Wine suggestion: Sweet white wine such as Jurançon (French Wine Guide).

The next one is from NPR 
 Gateau Basque

photo by Dorie Greenspan

Makes 8 servings
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 to 1 cup thick cherry jam or an equal amount of vanilla pastry cream
1 egg beaten with a splash of water, for the glaze 
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep at hand.
Working in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and both sugars together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until smooth. Add the egg and beat another 2 minutes or so, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. The mixture may look curdled, but that's OK. Add vanilla and mix for about a minute more. Then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in two or three additions, mixing only until they're fully incorporated into the dough.
Place a large sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper on your work surface and put half of the very soft and sticky dough in the center of the sheet. Cover with another piece of plastic or wax paper, then roll the dough into a circle just a little larger than 8 inches in diameter. As you're rolling, turn the dough over and lift the plastic or paper frequently, so that you don't roll it into the dough and form creases. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Put the dough on a cutting board or baking sheet and refrigerate it for about 3 hours or for up to 3 days.
When you're ready to assemble and bake the gateau, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Generously butter a 2-inch high, 8-inch round cake pan.
Remove the layers from the refrigerator and let them rest on the counter for a couple of minutes before peeling away the plastic or paper. Fit one layer into the pan — if it breaks, just press the pieces together. If there's a little extra dough running up the sides of the pan, you can either fold it over the bottom layer or cut it so that it's even. Spoon some of the jam or pastry cream onto the dough, starting in the center of the cake and leaving one inch of dough bare around the border. Add more filling if you don't think it will squish out the sides when you press down on it with the top layer of dough. (I find that 3/4 cup is usually just the right amount, but if you're using a very thick jam, you might want a bit more.)
Moisten the bare ring of dough with a little water and then top with the second piece of dough, pressing down around the edges to seal it. If you'd like, you can work your finger between the top dough and the edge of the pan, so that you tuck the dough under a little. Because of the softness of the dough and the baking powder, even if you only press the layers together very lightly, they'll fuse as they bake. And, no matter how well you press them together, it seems inevitable that a little of the filling will escape.
Brush the top of the dough with the egg glaze and use the tips of the tines of a fork to etch a cross-hatch pattern across the top.
Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for 5 minutes before carefully running a blunt knife around the edges of the cake. Turn the cake over onto a cooling rack and then quickly and carefully invert it onto another rack so that it can cool to room temperature right side up.
Serving: I think both the jam- and cream-filled cakes are best plain, but a little whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream are always nice on simple sweets.
Storing: Wrapped well, the jam-filled cake will keep for a day or so at room temperature. You can also keep the cream-filled cake overnight, but it will need to be refrigerated. However, because refrigeration can dry cakes, I think it's best to serve the cream-filled cake the day it is made.