Apricot season is short. Blink and you’ve missed the window when they’re actually ripe: soft, heavy, slightly perfumed. This year I wanted to make the best out of them, and they went straight into a Gateau Breton.
The idea came from... my partner's breakfast. He does a lot of weight training, which means a lot of egg whites. Every few days there's a little bowl of leftover yolks in the fridge with my name on it. Five this time. Add the apricots, a lavender bush just outside the window, and a free afternoon... and here we are.
They say behind every gym bro there’s a baker adding a whole stick of butter to their leftover yolks. I’m not sure who said it first, but I’m claiming it.
It’s a French classic from Brittany: a region that has zero shame about butter, and I respect that deeply.
Think of it as the love child of a shortbread biscuit and a butter cake. Two thick shells of rich, crumbly pastry sandwiching a fruity filling, glazed until deeply golden. It’s not quite a tart, not quite a cake. It’s its own thing, and it’s wonderful.
The dough is made with rice flour and cornstarch instead of wheat flour, which gives it that melt-in-the-mouth texture and makes it fully gluten-free without any compromise. The butter is the star: don’t try to reduce it. It’s Breton. This is not the dessert for moderation.
For the filling, you want something tart. The dough is rich and buttery and sweet, so the fruit needs to cut through it. I used the first ripe apricots of the season with a few fresh lavender flowers. That floral contrast against all that butter was exactly right. Peaches work beautifully. Sour cherries. Plums. Even a good-quality apricot jam if fresh fruit isn’t around.
The rule: the riper and more flavourful the fruit, the better the result.
For the dough
Ingredient Amount
Salted butter, room temperature 250g / 2 sticks + 2 tbsp
White rice flour 200g / 1½ cups
Cornstarch 50g / 6 tbsp
Caster sugar 150g / ¾ cup
Egg yolks 5
For the filling
Ingredients
Fresh apricots 200g / about 4–5 apricots
Or apricot jam 150g / ½ cup
Fresh lavender flowers (optional) 3-4
For the glaze
Ingredient
Egg yolk 1
Vanilla extract 1 tsp
Water 1 tsp
You’ll also need a 20cm / 8-inch loose-bottom cake tin.
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