I baked my first
Galette de Rois! We have bought the French "
King Cake", which is traditionally shared at Epiphany, on 6 January, from
Bonaparte Breads, a local French bakery the several past years. We, however, have been missing a chance to go to the bakery and get a king cake this year perhaps because it has been freezing outside. I was at home on another cold day, realizing I had all ingredients to make my own
Galette de Rois.
A basic French king cake is built with two parts:
feuilletage, or puff sheet and
crème d'amandes, or almond cream. I have made American style easy puff sheet (pie dough) many times while I have never made classic puff sheet. I quickly studied how to make it and adapted a couple of reliable recipes. It was surprisingly easy to make. It only required time to repeat rolling and resting dough four times, which I had enough.
On the other hand, I have made almond cream several times before, and already had a good recipe. Assembling the cake was a fun part.
Of course, I didn't forget to hide a
feve, which was a whole almond.
I searched a traditional pattern. Leaves seemed common.
Egg wash.
Ta-da!
It looked nice, but the sprinkled sugar on the top wasn't fully caramelized. Next time, if there is next time, I would do egg wash twice and skip sugar to create a traditional dark shiny top.
First I had thought making
Galette de Rois would be a two-day process, but I was able to manage all within a day, starting in the early morning and finishing in the afternoon.
The result was pretty good. I was happy with the outcome. The cake was a good size (8 inch) for two of us, filling was generous, and it wasn't overly sweet. So, who became King? That was a big mystery that I still can't understand! J found the almond in his slice. He became King. Then, next day, we had another slice. Then, he found another almond in his slice! Ok, he became King again, but how could it happen??????? I surely hid just one piece of almond in the cake before baking. How were there two?? I have no idea!
