Directions

• Prep Work
• Ensure your cookie dough butter and whole egg are completely at room temperature before starting.
• Sift the dough’s dry ingredients together into a single bowl: cake flour, bread flour, almond flour, and baking powder.
• Sift the cake flour for the pastry cream.
• Prepare to preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F) right before assembling the final cakes.
• The Cookie Dough Base
• Place the room-temperature butter, 100g of granulated sugar, and salt into a medium mixing bowl. Mix together with a rubber spatula until smooth and uniform. Whisk your whole egg in a small cup, then add it to the butter a little bit at a time, blending thoroughly after each addition.
• Fold and Chill
• Add the sifted flour and almond mixture directly to the creamed butter. Fold gently using a cutting motion with your spatula. Just as the dough begins to clump together, pour in the 5g of dark rum and mix briefly until a single dough forms. Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic film, use 5mm acrylic rolling rulers as a guide, and roll the dough out flat. Place the sheet into the freezer until it is cold and firm. (Note: Ensure it is rolled wide enough to cut out two 15cm rounds and two 12cm rounds).
• Stovetop Pastry Cream
• Slice open your vanilla bean fragment and scrape out the seeds. Place both the milk and the vanilla bean (pod and seeds) into a small saucepan over medium heat. In a separate bowl, whisk your egg yolks and 35g of granulated sugar together until pale and slightly thick, then whisk in the 15g of sifted cake flour until smooth.
• Cook Until Thick
• Just as the milk is about to boil, remove it from the heat and slowly stream it into the egg yolk bowl while whisking continuously. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan through a fine-mesh strainer to catch any lumps or the vanilla pod. Return to the heat and cook, stirring vigorously and constantly, until the mixture thickens into a glossy, boiling pastry cream. Remove from heat, stir in the 15g of butter until melted, spread the cream across a shallow tray, cover directly with plastic wrap, and plunge the tray into ice water to cool rapidly.
• Lining the Rings
• Retrieve your firm, frozen dough sheet. Use a 15cm ring to cut out 2 rounds, and a 12cm ring to cut out 2 rounds. Gently ease the larger 15cm rounds down into the bottoms and up the sides of two 12cm tart rings.
• Layer the Filling
• Whisk your chilled pastry cream briefly to smooth it out. Divide the cream evenly between the two lined tart rings (roughly 120g of cream per cake) and smooth the surfaces. Press about 6 dark cherries into the cream of each cake, embedding them slightly.
• Enclose and Chill
• Place the remaining 12cm cookie dough rounds on top of the pastry cream to act as lids. Press the edges down gently but firmly to seal the top and bottom dough layers together. Place the cakes into the refrigerator to chill and firm up completely.
• The Signature Basque Design
• Once the cakes are thoroughly cold and solid, lift off the outer 12cm tart rings. Brush the top surfaces smoothly with egg yolk wash, then use the tines of a fork to lightly score a traditional cross-hatch or lattice pattern into the glaze. Slip a 12cm pastry circle/ring back around the outside of each cake to prevent them from spreading or losing their shape in the heat, and prick the top surfaces 2 or 3 times with a toothpick to let steam escape.
• Bake to a Deep Gold
• Place the rings on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mesh baking mat (such as a Silpan). Bake in your preheated oven at 160°C (320°F) for approximately 45 minutes. Once the tops have taken on a gorgeous, rich, deep golden-brown color, remove them from the oven. Transfer the rings to a wire cooling rack and allow the cakes to cool to room temperature before removing the outer rings and serving.