Making a Traditional French Galette des Rois Is Simpler Than You Assume

A number of years in the past, I used to be a younger pastry prepare dinner working the early morning shift when a fellow baker introduced me with a slice of galette des rois—French kings’ cake—to take pleasure in with my cup of espresso. A layer of aromatic almond cream perfumed with rum was generously sandwiched between two layers of crisp, golden puff pastry, and, as is historically carried out in France, the baker had snuck a fève—a small bean, nut, or porcelain allure—into the filling. In northern France, households collect to take pleasure in galette des rois collectively on January 6 for Epiphany, which celebrates the three smart males, or the three kings, assembly child Jesus. 

“In accordance with custom,” journalist Ajesh Patalay writes within the Monetary Instances, “the youngest and most harmless within the room (not all the time the identical factor) climbs underneath the desk and chooses who receives every slice.” Whoever receives the little trinket is monarch for the day. In southern France, the custom is barely completely different: Bakers put together a gateau des rois with a dough much like that of brioche, then high it with pearl sugar and candied fruit. (In French, galette refers to a spherical, flat pastry, whereas gateau usually refers to a risen cake.) The gateau is way nearer to the colourful, cinnamon-scented confection eaten in New Orleans and all through South Louisiana from Epiphany via carnival season’s fruits on Mardi Gras. 

Although galette des rois’ origins are murky, the pastry reportedly has roots within the historical Roman pageant of Saturnalia. “Saturnalia was an event when many social hierarchies have been subverted; particularly, enslaved individuals got non permanent freedom and invited to share cake with their enslavers,” the encyclopedia Britannica notes. “A mock king, often called the Saturnalicius princeps, was designated for the pageant, often by hiding a fava bean or a coin inside a cake.” Someday in the course of the Center Ages, individuals started getting ready the cake for Epiphany, a convention that continues to be to at the present time. 

Many French households select to buy their galette des rois, however you’ll seemingly must make your personal when you don’t stay in France or close to a French bakery. Fortunately it’s not tough to arrange: All you want is a few almond cream, which comes collectively shortly with the assistance of an electrical mixer, and a few store-bought puff pastry. Right here’s how.

The right way to Make Galette des Rois: Key Methods

Make a flavorful almond cream. As a result of galette des rois is so easy and will get its taste from simply two parts—almond cream and puff pastry—it’s value taking the time to make a really scrumptious almond cream. Right here, I exploit our contributor Zola Gregory’s almond cream, which will get its daring taste from toasted almond flour and a mix of almond extract, vanilla extract, and brandy or rum. (You may even see this kind of almond cream referred to as “frangipane” in different recipes, however frangipane is technically a mixture of almond cream and pastry cream.)

Use an all-butter puff pastry. Making your personal puff pastry from scratch is admirable, however there are good store-bought choices that may do the trick. Simply you should definitely use puff pastry that’s made with butter, which can have a richer, extra nice taste than doughs made with soybean, canola, or different impartial oils. Dufour is one all-butter puff-pastry model we like, and it is what I utilized in my exams. 

Use an edible trinket. In France, it’s conventional to cover a dried bean or porcelain allure within the galette. Some bakeries even nestle a plastic figurine into the filling. Out of an abundance of warning, I want utilizing a nut like an almond or hazelnut, that are fully edible and soften within the filling because the pastry cooks, minimizing the danger of choking. 

Preserve the pastry as chilly as attainable. There’s loads of chilling and freezing time on this recipe, and that’s no mistake. Conserving the galette chilly does two issues: It helps the gluten chill out, which minimizes the danger of shrinkage when the pastry bakes. Chilling additionally ensures the butter stays agency. Because the dough bakes, the butter melts, creating little pockets of steam that assist the dough rise and set into crispy, flaky layers. 

Begin your bake at a excessive temperature. For the flakiest galette, I begin baking the pastry at a excessive temperature: 400ºF/205ºC. This may increasingly really feel counterintuitive—in spite of everything, the aim up till this level was to maintain the butter as chilly as attainable—however it is a method many bakers use to assist the butter within the pastry soften shortly, which creates the steam crucial for the crispy layers I discussed above and helps the crust set.

With the ideas above, you’ll be capable to make a bakery-worth galette des rois. And even when you aren’t the fortunate recipient of the fève, having fun with a slice of this pastry will definitely make you’re feeling like royalty.

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