**I will not be posting again until after Epiphany on January 4, 2015, so taking this opportunity to thank you for your readership and wish you & yours a very healthy & Happy New Year 2015!**
BONNES FETES !
Epiphany: The Christian holiday when a special cake eaten on or around January 6, called the ‘galette des Rois,’ is well know in France and celebrates the arrival of the three kings in the Bethlehem stable.
There are three different styles of the cake dependent on the area in France. In the north, puff pastry and almond filling; the south’s ‘gâteau des Rois’ is a circular brioche decorated with candied fruit, and western France has a sweetened shortcrust, rather than puff pastry. Both galette and gâteau are widely available – and even variants with chocolate, apple purée and nuts. All come with a cardboard crown and a “fève”, which traditionally used to be a bean before trinkets were introduced, often in the form of a baby Jesus, but today, it is just as likely to be a blue plastic “Schtroumpf” (Smurf). The cake is eaten with friends, family and colleagues, and the person who finds the fève is crowned king or queen for the day (a crown is sold with the cake).
Personal Note: A dried bean can be used in place of a figurine for the fève for a DIY version. In order to make sure the cake is served randomly, the French tradition is for the youngest member of the family to sit under the table (or simply close their eyes) and call out the name of the person to be served the next slice of the cut cake.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 stick butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup of sugar
2 sheets puff pastry
powdered sugar
Directions:
Grind almonds in food processor
For the Frangipane filling:
Beat sugar and butter
add two (2) of the eggs and almonds.
Next:
– Butter a flat baking sheet and unfold thawed puff pastries and using a pie pan as a template cut into two circles
– Spread the Frangipane filing in the center of one pastry layer and place a dried fava bean or ceramic figure
– Using the last egg, beat and paint the edges of the dough
– Place the second pastry circle on top and seal the edges
– Brush top with egg.
– Bake for 25-30 min at 375oF
Can serve 12 people.
(Original post Jan, 2014)
In Aveyron, which is kind of the south, we have the puff pastry/almond paste variety, which I have to say I don’t really like. I love the look of the “gâteau des rois”!
Merci for commenting – the brioche & frangipane versions are indeed unique in flavor and look. Happy Holidays!
Anything brioche-y is great in my book.
I just got back into blogging after a 3/4-year hiatus, but I think it will stick again this time. I’m an old-timer — started in 2005! Most of my contacts from “back in the day” are off the blog map now though, although some close contacts, now considered friends, are diligently still at it.
So I’m sure I’ll be commenting again.
Happy holidays to you!
Welcome back to the blogosphere 🙂
mmmm, my favourite! I was very organised this year and bought my ground almonds well in advance, after the disaster last year (running around every shop in town on 6 January, trying in vain to find somewhere that hadn’t run out…). Now if only I could remember where I put them… Happy Christmas!
Mais bon, c’est juste un trou de memoire – It’s just a lapse of memory 🙂
Joyeux Noel!
merci pour le rappel ::) ils sont déjà dehors mais c’est la épiphanie que compte. Its good to know there are those who remember but they are already out and its not until Epiphany that they should be out; traditions are getting thinner.
Merci & Bonnes Fetes!
merci à vous aussi. Joyeux Noêl!