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Brittany: Gateau Breton (Buckwheat Butter Cake)

This traditional butter cake of the Breton region, almost a shortbread, is based on one of the staple grains of Brittany, buckwheat (called blé noir in French, or sometimes farine de sarrasin). Buckwheat frequently turns up as a major grain in places where there is little arable land to spare (mountainous regions usually) or places where the climate is too cool or wet to grow good wheat. It's a dense grain, lacking gluten, and so will never raise very high when used for baking: which is possibly why a much better-known baked product of Brittany is the famous but extremely flat Breton crépe, the galette.

The Gateau breton, however, is worth making for a chance to experience the intense nutty flavor of buckwheat. There are a number of recipes for gateau breton out there that include no buckwheat at all... which may make the cake easier to deal with or more mainstream in flavor, but which nonetheless miss the point of tasting the ingredients that make this cake a specialty sought after by people all over France.

Click on "read more" for the recipe...

Brittany

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