Toétché

Previously, my favourite weekend of the year had been the sour beer festival in Saignelégier, Jura. Held at BFM (Switzeralnd’s craft beer mecca), it was a weekend of some of the best sours in the world. More on the festival, and my recipe for a beer ice cream, here.

It became a pilgrimage of sorts, dropping off our toddler at the grandparents, staying in a hotel then, after a day of heavy drinking, spending our Sunday sightseeing hungover somewhere in the region (St Ursanne, subterranean mills).

Of course this year it was cancelled (luckily those barrels should keep til next year…), but I still wanted a taste of the Jura, so I made the canton’s most famous dish, Toétché.

Although it is typically served in November, at the St Martin’s celebrations, this savoury cream cake is also wonderful with a summer salad.

According to the Kulinarisches Erbe, Toétché, which is simply the Jurassian dialect word for cake, has been baked for at least over a century. This ubiquity continues today, with it being perhaps the canton’s best known dish.

There are lots of recipes online for the Toétché, including Swissmilk’s version, this version from Rolli’s Koch und Back blog (with a long pre-ferment), lamiacucina’s version that adds cheese (!!!), and this one from the Qoqa cooking blog that adds a hint of saffron (which is nice).

I have a sourdough starter, Bertie, and typically use it as a kind of flavour enhancer (along with the commercial yeast). If you also have a sourdough starter, see below for instructions on how to add it to the recipe.

More on Bertie, plus how to make your own sourdough starter, here.

For the dough:

300 g flour

5 g salt

200 ml milk, room temperature

15 g fresh yeast

40 g butter, room temperature

For the topping:

1 egg

180 g crème fraîche

50 ml cream

saffron (optional)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

In a measuring cup, mix together the milk and yeast.

Make a well in the flour and add the liquid ingredients. Stir this together until a dough starts to form, then add the butter and begin to knead it on the table.

Knead for about 10-15 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Alternatively, mix for about 10 minutes in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Cover and let rise for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Line a 26 cm (10 inch) springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.

Roll the dough out into a circle and place in the pan, gently stretching it to the edge.

Let rest for about 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 230° C / 450° F / gas mark 8.

Press the centre of the dough down, creating an edge.

Whisk together the egg, creme fraîche, cream, and a few threads of saffron, broken up between your fingers (if using).

Pour the cream mixture over the dough.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned.

In Switzerland, full fat sour cream (around 35% milk fat) is sold as crème fraîche, andthe lower fat version would be sauer Halbrahm at around 15% milk fat. Make sure you use full fat crème fraîche (or full fat sour cream, depending on how they sell it where you are).

With a Sourdough Starter

265 g flour

5 g salt

175 ml milk

50 g sourdough starter

15 g yeast

40 g butter, soft

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

In another bowl, mix together the milk, sourdough starter, and yeast.

Make a well in the flour and add the liquid ingredients. Stir this together until a dough starts to form, then add the butter and begin to knead it on the table.

Continue following the instructions above!