The Tarte Tropézienne is a French cake that originated in Saint-Tropez and was created in the 1950s by pastry chef Alexandre Micka.
Consisting of a brioche flavoured with orange blossom essence, garnished with sugar and filled with a light and tasty mousseline cream, the Tarte Tropézienne is the result of a secret recipe invented by the Polish-born pastry chef, who was working in Provence at the time. The soft cake also won over one of cinema’s most glamorous actresses, Brigitte Bardot, who had the opportunity to taste it in 1956 during the filming of ‘And God Created Woman’, which was shot in Saint-Tropez near Micka’s shop.
Despite the secrecy of the recipe, many pastry chefs have tried their hand at preparing the Tarte Tropézienne, such as Giancarlo Bruno of Le Carré Français in Rome. To make these delicious treats that became a favorite recipe of Brigitte Bardot you will need: a planetary mixer fitted with a dough hook to knead the brioche and a leaf blade to whip the cream afterwards; a 20 cm diameter saucepan; a kitchen whisk; a marisa (spatula); a pastry roller; a food brush.
Ingredienti per 8 persone
For the brioche
For the mousseline cream
Recipe procedure
For the brioche
To make start the Tarte Tropézienne place the flour, sugar and salt into the planetary mixer. Add the yeast (under no circumstances should it touch the sugar and salt), eggs, milk and orange blossom. Start kneading at medium speed for 10 minutes. Add the butter and continue for another 10 minutes. When the dough comes away from the edges, it is ready. Leave to rise for an hour at room temperature. Now knead the dough to remove any gas that has formed during the rising process, reshape and place in the refrigerator for an hour (preferably overnight). Work the dough again with the roller to obtain a circle with a diameter of 20 cm. Gild the surface with the beaten whole egg and leave to rise for an hour at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 180° degrees. Brown a second time, sprinkle generously with granulated sugar and bake in a ventilated oven for 20 minutes. Leave to cool.
For the cream
Put the milk in the saucepan, cut the vanilla pod in half and add the vanilla beans to the milk; bring to the boil. In the meantime, beat the eggs and sugar and add the cornflour. Pour in a third of the milk, stir with a whisk and return everything to the saucepan. Bring back to the boil, stirring until creamy. Pour the cream into a container with cling film and leave to cool in the fridge. Once cool, put the cream in the planetary mixer, turn it with the leaf and add the soft butter in three times. Turn until the cream mousseline is well whipped. Store in the fridge.
Assembling the recipe
Cut the brioche for Tarte Tropézienne the into two parts. Place your cream in the centre of the lower part of the brioche and place the upper part on top. To give an extra touch to the cake, according to your personal taste, place raspberries inside and on the edges, in between the two layers. Dust with icing sugar.