Better late, than never: Galette des rois Recipe

My family isn't religious: I've never gone to church in my life. But like Christmas in the States, the Epiphany (L'Epiphanie, or Le Jour de Rois: the day of kings) is celebrated even by those who aren't necessarily religious.

The Galette is a french tradition that started in the Northern part of France, but is now kinda everywhere (even selling them in big super markets already pre-made, with smurf figurines and other cartoon themed galettes). You bake this cake with a tiny porcelain figurine (it used to be just a fava bean) hidden in it. When you slice it up, the person who gets the figurine gets to wear a paper golden crown and they're the 'king'. I totally remember trying to cheat as a little kid, by patting down on the cake to see where that smurf figurine was.

This year was on January 6th, but there was just way too much going on to have time to make the galette, so I made it yesterday. But you can definitely make this at any time: it's kind of like an almond croissant, so definitely don't feel bad for eating it for breakfast.

GALETTE DES ROIS RECIPE


What you need:


-2 Puff Pastry sheets (you can buy it frozen anywhere, just thaw it out in the fridge the night before) KEEP COOL UNTIL YOU NEED IT! You'll see why...
-Pan pie, skillet, plate...or anything else that you can trace that uses as much of the puff pastry as possible
-**1/4 C Almond Paste: Or just follow the recipe on how to make it
- 1/4 C white sugar
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter (softened)
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 eggs (one for the inside, one for brush on top of the outside)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- pinch of salt

**Almond Paste Recipe:


- 1/2 C almond meal, or use a food processor to ground 1/2 C of blanched almonds
- 1/4 C sugar
- 1 tbsp water
- Tiny squeeze of lemon

STEP 1:  Place the almond meal in a heat proof bowl. Put the water, sugar, and lemon in a sauce pan over medium high heat and mix together until blended and disolved. Let it boil for 40 seconds.

STEP 2: Take the boiling mixture off and immediately start pouring it into the bowl of almond meal while mixing with an electric mixer, or whisk really fast. When the sugar mixture cools even a little bit, it turns hard.

--------------------------------------------------

GALETTE: 

STEP 1: Set the oven 375 degrees. Butter a baking sheet that would fit your pastry, or place parchment paper on the pan.

STEP 2: Mix the almond paste and softened butter until well blended. Then, add the extracts, 1 egg, flour, and salt.

STEP 3: Take out the thawed pastry dough, and fold out the sheets.
Cut out a circle from each of your pastry sheets.


This is where things went a little crazy, so if this happens to you, here's how to fix it:


I was able to trace and cut out a circle from the first sheet...but the second one just wouldn't fold out, and it all just squished together. If this happens, do what I did! Wrap parchment paper around a rolling pin (or wine bottle, in my case) and roll it out until it's stretched and even. Then you're back on track :)

STEP 4: Place the almond mixture in the middle and spread it out, leaving room to fold the ends of the circles in to make a crust (about an inch).



STEP 5: Place the second circle of pastry dough on top of everything, and then fold the outside of the crusts towards the center of the galette, to make sure the filling stays into the cake. You can take a fork and press down to the folded crust to make sure it's sturdy.



STEP 6: Take the last egg and get the egg yolk seperated. Beat the egg yolk for an egg wash, and lightly brush all over the top of the cake.



STEP 7: With a sharp knife, score the top of the galette. You can do this in a shape or just score a 8 lined star.








STEP 8: Put in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

And there you go! You can eat it warm, but I like it room temperature.

Puff pastry isn't cheap, so definitely reuse the little scraps you have left over! I made little prpsciutto and parmesan cheese twists or prosciutto and parm/brie pizzas, and little brie puffs with apricot jam. But you could totally make a mushroom filling or chicken filling, whatever you have lying around.