Galette des rois
Galette des rois

Galette des rois is a puff pastry pie filled with frangipane, a very popular French cake that celebrates the holiday of Epiphany (January 6th), the day when the Wise Men (Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar) visited Baby Jesus. As part of French tradition, a bean or small china “fève” (favor) is hidden in the cake. Tradition has it that the youngest member of the family goes under the table to distribute the slices to the different people sitting around the table. The person who finds the lucky charm in their slice of galette des rois becomes the king (or queen) of the day. My version of the recipe with mini galettes allows everyone in the family to find a favor in their galette!



{Galettes des rois}

Preparation time: 30 min

Cooking time: 15 min

Yield: 4 mini galettes de rois

Ingredients

  • 2 sheets ready made or homemade puff pastry, very cold
  • 1 egg yolk, beaten with 2 tsp water, for glazing
  • Custard:

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 125 ml milk (1/2 cup)
  • 30 g sugar (2 tbs)
  • 10 g cornstarch (2 tsp)
  • 1/2 vanilla pod
  • Almond cream:

  • 50 g butter (1/4 cup)
  • 80 g sugar (3/8 cup)
  • 2 eggs
  • 150 g ground almonds (1 1/2 cups)

Directions

  1. Prepare custard. In a saucepan bring 1/2 vanilla pod, 100 ml milk and sugar to the boil. Mix remaining milk and corstarch. Beat the egg yolk, and mix in. Remove milk from heat, remove vanilla pod, and then gradually stir in egg yolk mixture. Reduce heat to low, bring back saucepan to heat, and let thicken stirring constantly. Reserve until cold (cover with a plastic film)
  2. To make almond cream, beat butter and sugar until smooth, add eggs one by one, and then ground almond, and mix until smooth
  3. Stir custard into almond cream and mix together to make frangipane mixture
  4. Roll out one sheet of the puff pastry sheets. Cut 4 circles using a large round cookie cutter. Carefully brush some of the beaten egg yolk mixture around the edges of every circle.
  5. Mound the frangipane filling onto the center of the pastry, spreading it evenly
  6. Take the other puff pastry sheet out of the fridge, and roll it out.
    Cut another 4 circles, slightly larger than the previous ones. Cover every circle with filling with the second piece, pressing the edges to seal
  7. Lightly brush egg yolk onto the top of every mini galette. Chill the galettes in the fridge for one hour minimum
  8. Remove from the fridge, and brush again with egg yolk. Using a sharp knife, make a small hole in the middle of every galette to allow the steam to escape. Mark the top of the pastry from the centre to the edges like the spokes of a wheel or in a zig zag pattern. Chill again, whilst preheating oven to 400 ºF (200 ºC)
  9. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold

NOTES:

  • Frangipane cream from Amuses Bouche
  • If you have prepared this recipe, and want to send me a pic and your comments, please use this form . If you wish to subscribe to receive my recipes in English please do it here
  • Happy New Year!