Galette des rois

Galette des rois 

 

This frangipane cake is traditionally served in france to celebrate epiphany on the 6th of January to mark the arrival of the 3 kings to Jerusalem...hence the name. Traditionally there is a little porcelain ornament hidden in the cake and if you find it in your slice you are declared king/queen. You can buy it throughout january, but let's be honest, it is so good that I want to be able to eat it all year round! So here's the recipe, it is very simple. The only tricky bit is the pattern decoration on the top, but you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. Or if that seems a little scary,  you don't even have to score it at all, the taste of the cake won't suffer in any way.

You will need:
 

- 2 puff pastry blocks or sheets

- 80g of ground almonds

- 40 g of unsalted butter (leave at room temperature to soften)

- 50 g of caster sugar

- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk

- 1 tsp of almond extract

- 1 tbsp of orange blossom water (or 1 tsp of orange extract)

- 1 feve (the thing you hide inside)

Preparation: 

1. If you've bought puff patry blocks, roll them out to a thickness of about a pound coin. If you have bought a puff pastry sheets, just unroll them as they should be about the thickness we are looking for. 

2. Using a dinner plate as template cut a circle around on one of the puff pastry sheets and on the other cut a simimar circle but adding 1 cm all around (or 2 cm diametre for those who love maths ;p)

The reason is that the second sheet will be lay on top and so you need to account for extra space to fit the frangipane filling.

3. Place both sheets in the fridge, it is important to keep the pastry cold.

4. For the frangipane, start by creaming the butter and sugar together before adding the egg. Beat until you get an even consistency and slowy add the ground almonds. Add the almond extract and the orange blossom water (or orange extract. Be aware they are not the same thing! So watch the proportions: 1 table spoon vs 1 tea spoon). If you are feeling particularly festive, you can use 1 tbsp of cointreau instead! Give a final mix to incorporate the oils and we are ready to spread.

5. Take your puff pastry circles out of the fridge. On the smallest one, spread the frangipane mixture making sure to leave 1 cm all around. Once evenly distributed, place the feve in the mixture, beat the reamining egg yolk and brush the edges of the pastry. 

6. Cover with the second puff pastry sheet and press gently all around to seal the cake. Make sure you remove as much air from between the 2 sheets as possible, otherwise the cake will burst in the oven. Trim the edges of the galette to neaten. With the back of the knife, crimp the edge of the pastry all around and brush the whole cake with the remaining egg yolk. 

 

7. Put in the fridge to firm up for 20 min. In the meantime preheat your oven at 180 C fan.

8. Now it's time to get creative. You can take the cake out and score the top with any motif you want. Only make sure to keep the incisions shallow as we do not want the top sheet to burst in the oven.

Once you are happy with your design, pop the cake in the oven for 25-30 min or until golden.

All done now! All is left to do is to slice the cake and eat it to see who gets crowned king or queen :)