Basque cake – traditional recipe

Directions

• To prepare the pastry, in a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, melted butter, 1 egg, 2 egg yolks, salt and lemon zest. You can also knead the dough by hand, as I did. Mix it until you get a soft and non-sticky dough.
• Wrap the dough with plastic film and keep it in the fridge for 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, make the custard filling, whisk together 100ml of milk, 4 egg yolks, 50 g of sugar and 50 g of flour.
• In a medium saucepan, heat the rest of the milk (400 ml) with the lemon peel, over medium heat.
• When the milk is warm, pour little by little the mixture (milk, yolks, sugar and flour). Whisk constantly until the mixture gets thick and starts boiling. Around 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat and cover with a lid to cool for 30 minutes. Remove the lemon peel.
• Get the dough from the fridge and divide into two pieces, one a little it bigger than the other one. One for the top and one for the bottom part.
• Take the bigger piece and roll it out with a rolling pin. I always place one baking paper on the bottom, as it is easier to transfer the dough into a mold later. Roll as thin as possible, 2-3 mm thickness.
• Carefully transfer it to a pie mold with a removable bottom, pressing into bottom and up sides.
• Pour the custard filling.
• Take the smaller piece and roll it out with the rolling pin, again place the baking paper on the bottom.
• Carefully place it over the filling, seal edges and trim excess dough.
• In a small bowl, whisk 1 egg and brush the top of the pie carefully with the egg.
• Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 160ºC.
• Most difficult step, the waiting time. Let cool at room temperature and wait at least 12 hours before eating it. The taste will be a lot better after a few hours when the pie is completely cold.