The Jealous Crumpet

A sweet little blog

Galette des Rois

15 Comments

King Cake with two queens and a llama.

Left: King Cake Right: I didn’t have 3 kings so I had to make do with 2 queens (I guess the statue of liberty is a queen) and a llama.

Happy Epiphany! To celebrate the three kings locating baby Jesus (pre-GPS, a feat indeed) with their gifts of gold (score!), frankincense (aromatic resin.. lame) and myrrh (more resin… gee thanks) we eat cakes with a hidden choking hazards.

I wanted to photograph my galette with the three wise men, but I didn’t have three king figures, so I had to make do with 2 queens (and that is a loose interpretation of ‘queen’, since I don’t think the Statue of Liberty is technically a queen) and a llama.

In the states we eat sugar and dye covered King Cakes with a hidden plastic baby.  I’m not the biggest fan of the American version, but it is tradition.  In France they make Galette des Rois, an almond infused cake with a hidden porcelain figurine that many people collect.

I made the french version, complete with a porcelain fève, which literally translates to a fava bean.

ingredients

The ingredients of the filling of the king cake!

Galette des Rois

Frozen Puff Pastry

Filling:

1 1/4 cups of almond flour

1/3 cups of sugar

pinch of salt

8 table spoons of butter (unsalted)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

Mix the dry ingredients together. Add 8 tablespoons of cut up butter and mix.  Add two eggs and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.  Put in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.  1Take chilled puff pastry and cut into a circle.  I wasn’t very precise, but I had a pasta bowl and used that as my template.  2Next add the almond filling to the crust and don’t forget to add your hidden baby jesus.  Side note: Don’t forget to not choke on baby Jesus.  That would be a tragic celebration of his birth.  3Pinch the crust together to create a seal and coat the top of the crust with egg whites.  Sprinkle sliced almonds on the top.  Bake at 400 degrees for 28 to 30 minutes.

The mail carrier came to the door right when I was about to take my galette out and he’s a talker.  I got distracted chatting about the weather so my cake is a bit overcooked.  1Y2B1373

 

 

Author: Sarah Bélanger

I am a freelance photographer and writer, working for various magazines, cookbooks and blogs. I love what I do, but I have a lot of restrictions depending on which brand and publication I'm working for. This blog gives me the opportunity to have fun. I'm also a pretty terrible cook, so this blog is forcing me to learn some kitchen skills, which is both thrilling and infuriating. I hope you enjoy reading the blog, half as much as I enjoy making it.

15 thoughts on “Galette des Rois

  1. I love your pie 🙂 Haha LOVE your three wisemen! 😀

  2. Too funny. And you’re right: I love New Orleans, but the American version is just gross.

  3. This may be the most appealing us of frozen puff pastry I’ve ever seen. Just got back from Paris – you can’t pass a pastry shop without seeing a display of galettes and crowns. Ken

    • This was the first time I made this and I have to say the frozen puff pastry did amazingly well with this recipe. I contemplated making the puff pastry from scratch, but I just saw an episode of “The Great British Bake Off” and they said it can be tricky to make so I got intimidated. If real chefs have trouble with it there is no hope for me.

  4. P.S. I got the fève this year – a tiny chef, which I left with out Parisian friend to add to her kitchen window sill collection. Ken

  5. Hi Sarah – my favourite dessert! – I like the sentence don’t forget to add but not choke on baby jesus made me laugh. On puff pastry, pparently there is a cheats way to do puff pastry – Nigella Lawson has a recipe in her cookbook domestic goddess – might be worth a look 🙂

    • Hello, Thank-you! I’ll have to check out Nigella’s Cheats. I wanted to make it from scratch, but it seemed like a lot could go wrong, so I lost my nerve.

      • 🙂 oh just give it a go and don’t tell anyone, I think its more about keeping the butter cold and the dough cold and being patient with folding the envelopes over each other – my mum used to make it when she was newly married and she tells me a its a labour of love and patience

  6. Pingback: Happy Epiphany: Let Them Eat Cake! | The Jealous Crumpet

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