Galette de Rois

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I wanted to make the traditional Galette de Rois, to celebrate the arrival of the 3 Kings. We ate many of these during our time in France, but only from the boulangerie or the supermarket. My friend who has the teashop, always makes one, and she kindly gave me her recipe. There's a bean or feve in the galette, and the person who finds it in their piece, gets to wear a crown and be king or queen for the day.

 Preheat oven 180C/gas4
You take a sheet of butter puff pastry and fill it with a delicious almond cream.
For the cream - you need to beat 125g of butter till nice and creamy. Put 125g of caster sugar, 130g of ground almonds,1 tbspn of cornflour and a pinch of salt in a bowl and mix together.Add this to the butter and mix till smooth. Add 1 drop of almond extract then 2 eggs, one at a time. Put the cream in the fridge covered with clingfilm for an hour or overnight, to chill.
Roll out a pack of  puff pastry [about 500g] and divide into 2. Roll again and cut out 30cm circle using a plate. Then roll out again and cut out a slightly larger circle - about 6mm bigger than the other one.
Put the smaller circle on some baking parchment on a baking sheet. Mix an egg yolk with a tbspn of water or milk then lightly brush it round the edge of the circle. Put the cream into the middle and spread up to the egg wash. 
Put the bean in, but not in the middle, put it near an edge and press it in. Put the 2nd pastry circle on top of the first and smooth it gently over the cream not to have any air pockets; press it down sides gently. Score the pastry with the back of a knife to make a pattern.
Brush the top with eggwash, but don't let it drip over the edges or the pastry won't rise as much. Put 5 holes in the top - 1 in the middle and 4 near the corners. Put the galette in the fridge for an hour or so on the baking sheet.
Bake for 30 mins then take galette out and mix 1 tbspn of icing sugar with 1 tbspn of hot water and brush this over the top and put back in the oven for a minute to give it a nice shiny finish.



I should have made the pattern on the top deeper, as it didn't come out very well. The galette has a really lovely creamy filling, and the pastry is crisp and a good contrast to the soft filling.

Comments

Suelle said…
That looks a very impressive example of a pithivier, Snowy!

When Paul Hollywood made something similar on TV, he said that it needs to be scored after egg washing, as the egg can hold the edges of the cuts together, so that the pattern doesn't show up as well - it might be a useful tip for the future!
4/1/14 8:32 am
julie said…
Your galette looks very good! Well done for making it yourself. I made mine today and some of the filling escaped. Oh well. Suelle is right, score the pattern after brushing yolk the second time and just before baking.

xx
4/1/14 9:31 am
Phil in the Kitchen said…
That sounds like a very fine version of the venerable galette to me. I would like to point out, though, that I have NEVER got la fève in my piece. It's just not fair.
6/1/14 2:52 pm
Anonymous said…
It looks really good Snowy.
I love these kind of traditional bakes for the New Year. I didn't make a Vassilopitta this year and it just feels wrong.

Happy New Year to you.
9/1/14 5:00 am
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