Originating in Brittany, France, Breton pastries are identified far and large for his or her beneficiant use of salted butter.
Within the 14th century, the French authorities launched a tax, known as gabelle, on the sale of client items. By the fifteenth century, the time period was principally used to indicate a salt tax, or a tax on the consumption of salt. France was identified to have extensively various tax charges, with many areas gaining unfair tax cuts and exemptions primarily based on clergy and the Aristocracy within the space, who used their energy to achieve sure privileges that echoed practices from previous feudal techniques. At this identical time, as a result of a lot political bargaining when the area was formally built-in into France, Brittany was thought of legally exempt from the widespread salt tax. The widespread disparity in tax charges, notably the salt tax, is commonly cited as a root reason behind the French Revolution in 1789.
The peninsular area of Brittany had lengthy been a serious producer of each dairy merchandise and sea salt. Due to this, bakers, cooks, and residential cooks liberally used salt. Not solely was it used to protect meals and stop spoilage in non–shelf-stable objects reminiscent of dairy merchandise, however salt additionally offered added taste to all their cooking and baking. Utilizing salted butter in baked items minimize by the richness of the butterfat and amplified the delicate sweetness of the contemporary native dairy, making it a preferred ingredient that remained in regional dishes for hundreds of years. Even after the abolition of the salt tax following the French Revolution, salted butter was nonetheless extensively utilized in Brittany, and that continues to this present day.
Though we usually use unsalted butter to manage the quantity of salt in a recipe, we’ll fortunately attain for salted butter to bake these Breton pastries.
