Galette des Rois (French epiphany's traditional recipe)

On the 6th of every January, french tradition is brought to table with a sweet, hiding a little porcelain treasure in it, for a lucky person. It's a traditional sweet that is shared between people presented on the table and the target is to cut as many pieces as the people on the table where lucky one will find a little porcelain treasure within. This lucky person is nominated Queen or King and wears her/his crown. Then this person choses to share this honor with a king (if the winner is a Queen) or with a Queen (if the winner is a King). And at the end, they all enjoy the little pastry!

This sweet is based on the technique of puff pastry. That's a special chapter that I am about to develop real soon within the coming days because the whole processing and result counts once all steps are correctly followed(if your read this post later in this year or in the coming years, check in my library for the puff pastry chapter).

If you are really familiar with this preparation then it's worth definitely making your own pastry.

Otherwise just buy from the super market two puff pastry bases for tarts and make the recipe.

What's a Galette des Rois? It's a puff pastry sweet where the internal cream used is called "frangipane". It's in fact a very thick gluten free cream with almonds powder, eggs butter and sugar. I recently though discovered a little more advanced and very delicious recipe for frangipane, where we add crème patissière, in the initial recipe, for a richer taste result. But today I am about to share with you a special chocolate frangipane filling recipe, that I have found in the site Le Meilleur du Chef, easy to make and bake, in order to enjoy this tradition. Don't forget the porcelain bean! That's essential! And the crown!

Ingredients

2 puff pastry bases

150 dark chocolate (55%) melted

2 eggs

75 gr butter very well softened in room temperature

150 almonds powder

150 caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp of powder sugar (optional for decoration)

Whiten the butter with the sugar in a mixer, until they are both very well incorporated and the mixture remains soft. Add one by one the eggs and preferably with a wooden spoon, continue mixing until fully homogenized. Add the melted chocolate and continue mixing. Finally add the almonds and mix until the mixture is very well homogenized. The mixture will be as well very thick.

Place one part of the puff pastry in a large baking pan covered with baking paper. Assisted by a piping bag filled with the mixture, start inserting the cream by creating a circle from the center of the pastry and continuing until covering almost the three quarters of the pastry. Then place the little porcelain bean for the winner somewhere in the cream's surface (this bean will be included in the baking process).

Finally place from above the other piece of puff pastry. With your hands and with some water drops, stick well the edges. Then either use a tart circle all around the pastry to cut and withdraw any remaining part (this will enable you have a gallette richer in filling and poor in remaining pastry) or use your fingers and make little pastry knots like a design.

Preheat the over to 180 degrees C.

With a brush pour some egg yolk (slightly beaten) in the whole surface of the pastry in order to get this beautiful gold colour while being baked.

Finally, with a sharpen knife, cut slightly the surface of the pastry in a way to produce geometrical designs.

Before placing it in the oven, make sure that all pastry edges are very well closed and stuck.

Bake the sweet for 30 minutes.

Let it cool before cutting and serving it. Optionally you could spread sugar powder in the whole surface!

Good luck to all nominated winners!

#christmas