La Tarte Tropezienne (Tarte from St. Tropez)

By bakeaholic

I first had tasted this tarte when I visited St. Tropez. It is delicious. It is essentially a sandwich of thick custard and sweet brioche.

Ingredients

• For brioche:
• 1 pkg. instant yeast
• 50 g. all-purpose flour + 500 g.
• 150 g. sugar
• Zest of one lemon
• 3 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 25 g. softened butter
• 1 egg yolk
• For custard:
• 3 eggs
• 5 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 litre hot milk
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250 g. heavy cream

Preparation

Step 1

Brioche
1. In a mixing bowl containing a little warm water, pour in the package of yeast and stir. Stir in flour, little by little and leave aside to ferment until the mixture doubles in size.
2. In another bowl mix together the sugar, lemon zest, eggs, salt, softened butter and flour. Add the yeast mixture and knead for a few minutes before covering with a damp towel. Let rest for 3 hours.
3. Place the dough in a high sided cake pan dusted with flour. Brush the top with the egg yolk and bake at 200 degrees C.for half an hour. When baked, turn out and let cool completely.
4. Slice in half through the middle.

Custard
1. Vigorously whisk together the eggs, sugar, flour, hot milk and vanilla. Pour the mixture into a preheated saucepan. Let mixture thicken into a custard while stirring continuously.
2. Whip the heavy cream and gently fold into the cooled custard. Spread the custard over one of the brioche layers and top with the other.