11/27/10

Galette des rois à la frangipane

Baked a "galette des rois" today (well actually my mum did but I helped), it's a French holiday cake made with layers of flaky puff pastry and with a dense center of frangipane, a creamy almond-flavored filling. Let me tell you, if you bake this for your family on Christmas, you'll get more presents, I'm serious. It's a French recipe that I'll try to translate as best as possible. This cake is a big part of Christmas festivities in France but I'm not going to go through its cultural importance today because it's boring, however you should know that traditionally, you have to hide a little figurine inside the cake, whether it be a car, a crown or a cartoon character; whatever floats your boat. Whoever finds the ornament in their slice gets to be king for the day. So yes, it's a fun cake, especially if you're tired of the same holiday traditions and want to switch it up a bit.  As I said before, I'm going to try to walk you through the recipe as best as I can. It's really very simple so don't stress; if I can do it you can too.  First you'll need: 2 sheets of puff pastry 3-4 medium eggs 100 g ground almonds (3.5 oz) 70 g softened butter (2.5 oz) 150 g sugar (3.5 oz) 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon rum or kirsch (but you don't need that)small ornament of your choice 1. Make the frangipane: take your almonds and boil them until they are soft and chewy, you can taste one, just try not to burn yourself! Put them in a colander, wait for them to cool off a little bit and you can start peeling them. Once you've peeled them all, you can roast them a little bit (but that's not necessary) and then grind them in a food processor until they're in bits. Don't over-grind them. Beat 1 whole egg and an egg white with the almond powder,  adding the butter and sugar. Keep the yellow to brown patty. Then, add the flour and the  alcohol. Again, the rum (or kirsch) is optional.  2. Unroll the puff pastry on a baking sheet, spread the almond mixture on top of it and drop  your little ornament wherever you want it to be. 3. Cover the cake with the second pastry sheet. Make sure you patch the edges of the top and  lower sheets together so no air gets in the cake. You can do that with water or with egg yolks.  By the way, if you have bits of puff pastry left you can use them as decoration on the cake,  have funnnnnnn. 4. Brush the top of the cake with two egg yolks using a brush. Bake 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven to 200 ° C - 350 ° C. You can eat it warm or cold but I'm always so impatient that I have to have it as soon as it's out of the oven!

Bon appétit!