Galette des Rois
What better way to start the year than a great tradition!?
The Galette des Rois or King’s cake comes from a Christian feast day, the Epiphany, which commemorates the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. It’s celebrated on the sixth of January or the second sunday after Christmas in France.
Nowadays, everybody in France is enjoying the Galette des Rois, during the whole month of January you get to try different recipes as there is always a good reason for someone to bring a galette over, weather it’s for a family reunion, a work breakfast or an association meeting for instance. Therefore, a lot of people get sick of it by the end of the month!
However, since it’s only a seasonal cake, you won’t get to enjoy it for the rest of the year so when it’s back again the next year, you’re craving for it again!
An important thing to know for the people that are not familiar with the galette is that we insert a feve in it. The feve used to be a bean in the old times but has been replaced by a charm, which is usually made of porcelain and can be of many shapes. The tradition wants that the youngest child in the room goes underneath the table and decides which slice is going for who. Whoever gets the feve is the king or the queen for the day and gets to wear a crown – made of paper… !
It’s pretty exciting when you’re a kid, I remember that I was more focused on getting the feve than eating the galette. Now, it’s the other way around!
The traditional recipe we do in France is a puff pastry filled with frangipane – almond cream and pastry cream mixed together
Some regions also have different types of galettes and I’ll come up with the recipe from my region, Franche-Comte, very soon – click to check it out. Besides, nowadays, bakers are being very creative by bringing new flavors : cherry/pistachio, pear/chocolate, apple/cinnamon,etc…
But for today, let’s stick to tradition!
Galette des rois
Ingredients
Inverted puff pastry – start the day before
Inverted puff pastry – Butter
- 333 g butter room temperature
- 133 g AP flour
Inverted puff pastry – Detrempe
- 300 g AP flour
- 10 g salt
- 120 ml water
- 80 g butter melted
- 4 g sugar
Almond cream
- 62 g butter room temperature
- 62 g sugar
- 62 g almond flour
- 19 g AP flour
- 62 g eggs
Pastry cream
- 88 ml milk
- 17 g sugar
- 17 g eggs
- 5 g cornstarch
- 5 g butter
Egg-wash
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch salt
Rum syrup
- 20 g sugar
- 20 ml water
- 20 ml rum
Start by making the butter and the detrempe for the puff pastry
I found a great video that can help you with the step by step on how to make inverted puff pastry, I did the same turns as in the video, two doubles and one simple.
For the butter, mix it with the paddle attachment of your stand up mixer along with the flour. Once it’s combined, form a rectangle of a half inch height in between two sheets of parchment paper and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Make the detrempe, mix together all the ingredients until combined and form a ball, do a cross with a knife on top of it and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Turns
Remove the butter and the detrempe from the fridge.
Place the butter rectangle on a lightly floured surface, roll it out lenghtwise, approximately 5mm height.
Then roll out the detrempe, it needs to be half the size of the butter rectangle. Once you reached the right size, place it on top of the butter, in the center, and fold the butter on top of the detrempe on both sides. You want to cover the detrempe completely with the butter.
Roll the pastry lengthwise, about 1cm height.
First double turn
Fold the top quarter of the rectangle to the bottom – always make sure to remove the exceed of flour before folding, you can use a brush to do so.
Fold the bottom quarter of the rectangle to the top. Leave a 2cm gap between the edges, then fold the half bottom on the top bottom.
Here you have your first double turn! Cover with saran wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes minimum.
Second double turn
Place the pastry in front of you with the folds on the sides, roll out to a 1cm height rectangle and repeat the same process than for the first turn.
Refrigerate again for 30 minutes.
Simple turn
Place the pastry in front of you with the folds on the sides.
Roll out to a 1cm height. Fold the top third to the bottom and the bottom third to the top.
Refrigerate overnight.
Almond cream – can be made the day before
In a stand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar with the paddle attachment. Scrape the bowl and add the almond flour and the flour.
Finally, add the eggs in two times, scrape the bowl and mix on second speed for a couple of minutes. Cover the almond cream with a saran wrap and refrigerate.
Pastry cream – can be made the day before
In a pot, bring to a boil the milk with half of the sugar. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar and the cornstarch. Once the milk is ready, pour some of it in the eggs, whisk quickly and transfer back to the pot with the rest of the milk.
Keep whisking on a medium heat until it boils again and cook for one more minute from that point. Never stop stirring to prevent the cream from burning. Remove from the stove and add the butter. Mix until melted and cover with a saran wrap, refrigerate.
Frangipane
Simply mix the almond cream and the pastry cream together. If you did the almond cream the day before, remove it from the fridge 30 minutes prior to making the frangipane so that it softens a bit.
Assembling the galette
Cut the puff pastry in half to make two rounds. Roll out to about a half centimeter height, cut a round and repeat the same process with the other half of the pastry.
Place the bottom round on a baking sheet lined up with parchment paper. Brush the exterior with water – about half inch.
Pipe the frangipane on top of the bottom round, leaving the brushed half inch empty. Place the feve in the cream, on the side. Do not place in the center as you will have more chances of touching it when you cut the galette!
Place the top pastry round, smooth and press the edges well with your index finger so that it doesn’t open during baking. Use a knife to cross the edges. Egg wash and place in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven up to 350°F.
Egg wash again and decorate using the tip of a knife upside down. Use the same knife to poke some holes in the galette, avoid the center.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F, then 20 minutes at 325°F and lastly 30 to 40 minutes at 300°F.
In the meantime, prepare the rum syrup by boiling together the water and the sugar. Remove from the stove and add the rum.
When the galette is coming out of the oven, brush with the syrup – and enjoy the amazing smell!!
