King cake - La galette des Rois
It is a French tradition to celebrate the Epiphany on the 6th of January by eating la galette des Rois or king cake with a trinket (usually a porcelain figurine) hidden inside. The person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket becomes "king" for a day. Last year, I celebrated this event at my school with 45 middle school students. Coming back from France where I spent the Christmas holidays, I was able to buy 6 kingy cakes there and to bring them back to school. I kept one cake for my family so that my boys could experience this tradition as well.
This year is a bit different because I am on maternity leave and I didn't get to go to France over the holidays. I still wanted to celebrate the Epiphany with my family so I decided to bake my own galette with my boys. I followed the recipe from the Marmiton French cooking website . I changed it a bit by adding more almond powder and no icing sugar. When it came to make the "crème pâtissière" or custard in English, I watched the video on Marmiton too. Our galette turned out not to look like one at all because the puff pastry I bought was weird!!! But it still tasted like a real one! Below is a picture of a real one anyway from a Parisian bakery, courtesy of the scrumptious blog Haut Appétit.
- 500g puff pastry
- 100g soft butter
- 100g almond powder
- 200g caster sugar
- Vanilla pod
- 4 egg yolks
- 1l milk
- 100g flour
- almond extract
La crème pâtissière
It was the most worrying part for me but it was actually very easy to make. I prepared it the day before so that it was completely cold to add to the almond cream. I actually made half more custard than needed and I froze the leftover. I am thinking of making chocolate profiteroles next!
Beat 4 egg yolks with the sugar. Add the flour. Heat the milk with the little grains from the vanilla pod. When the milk is warm, add the egg-sugar-flour mixture and keep stirring (first with a whip then with a wooden spoon) until it thickens and it gets to custard consistency. Leave it to cool down and then keep in the fridge for the next day. La crème d'amande
Mix the soft butter with the almond powder and almond extract (depending on how you like the almond's flavour).
Add the custard (only half of the above) and mix well.La galette
Preheat the oven to 210 degrees.
Roll out half of the puff pastry on a baking sheet.
Spread the cream (almond and custard) mixture called frangipane in French over the pastry but be careful to leave out the sides of the pastry.
Cover the mixture with the other half of the puff pastry. Insert a small trinket (which can be cooked in an oven!).
Close the edges of both sides of the pastry.
With a knife draw nice patterns on top of the pastry.
Brush the pastry with one egg yolk and a bit of water.
Put in the oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. The galette is eaten warm! The youngest at the table goes under it and decides who gets which piece of cake. The one who gets the trinket (be careful not to eat it!) is the king or the queen for the day! He or she can choose his king or her queen.
It was the most worrying part for me but it was actually very easy to make. I prepared it the day before so that it was completely cold to add to the almond cream. I actually made half more custard than needed and I froze the leftover. I am thinking of making chocolate profiteroles next!
Beat 4 egg yolks with the sugar. Add the flour. Heat the milk with the little grains from the vanilla pod. When the milk is warm, add the egg-sugar-flour mixture and keep stirring (first with a whip then with a wooden spoon) until it thickens and it gets to custard consistency. Leave it to cool down and then keep in the fridge for the next day. La crème d'amande
Mix the soft butter with the almond powder and almond extract (depending on how you like the almond's flavour).
Add the custard (only half of the above) and mix well.La galette
Preheat the oven to 210 degrees.
Roll out half of the puff pastry on a baking sheet.
Spread the cream (almond and custard) mixture called frangipane in French over the pastry but be careful to leave out the sides of the pastry.
Cover the mixture with the other half of the puff pastry. Insert a small trinket (which can be cooked in an oven!).
Close the edges of both sides of the pastry.
With a knife draw nice patterns on top of the pastry.
Brush the pastry with one egg yolk and a bit of water.
Put in the oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. The galette is eaten warm! The youngest at the table goes under it and decides who gets which piece of cake. The one who gets the trinket (be careful not to eat it!) is the king or the queen for the day! He or she can choose his king or her queen.
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