It’s January and the boulangeries & patisseries here are full of large round tarts – the famous Galette des Rois, which is traditionally eaten to celebrate Epiphany – the visit of the Three Wise Men. The cake or tart is made of flaky pastry with a filling of frangipane (an almond paste) and hidden in the filling is a fève – traditionally, a dried broad bean. In the 19th century, the bean was replaced by a tiny porcelain figurine (now, they are inevitably plastic!). Whoever finds the fève is king or queen for the day and they get to wear a cardboard crown (usually sold with the galette). I checked out Wikipedia to make sure my history was right – it was – but then I found the following nugget of information: “ The cakes are usually sold in special bags, some of which can be used to heat the cake in a microwave without ruining the crispness of the cake.”
So much for tradition - special bags so we can heat our galettes in the microwave!
We bought a galette from the local supermarket, forking out a little extra for the ‘version gourmande‘ and re-heated it in the oven. Biting into it, the taste was synthetic, too much artificial almond essence, the density of the frangipane was thick and cloying and the flaky pastry was at the same time dry and faintly rancid. What a disappointment! And then I thought, hang on, traditions can’t be bought in supermarkets – why am I complaining? So I got out the scales and the flour and set to.
The frangipane was easy: 125 grammes each of butter, almonds, & caster sugar, one soup spoon of flour, all blended until creamy in the mixer. Then I added 3 drops of real bitter almond essence to one beaten egg and tipped that in and mixed it. Finally, I added a good slosh of Monsieur Gervais’s Eau de Vie de Prune (matured six years in an oak cask) – a gift to Roland and another story to tell, another day.
I cheated on the next bit, tradition or no, I didn’t have the time to make my own flaky pastry, so I bought two ready-made packs of the best I could find made with butter. Putting baking paper on a large metal tray, I unrolled the first layer of pastry and then covered it with a good spreading of our Confiture des Figues, leaving about 1.5cms of pastry clear all round the edges. Then I covered that with a thick layer of the frangipane and stuck a real fève in the paste. With the beaten yolk of an egg I brushed all round the edge of the pastry and sealed the second layer of pastry over the frangipane. I folded and crimped the edges then cut with a very sharp knife a fine trellis of decorative lines all over the surface – there are lots of local variations as to the pattern. Mine ended up looking a little like a spider’s web (given Roland’s arachnophobia – perhaps a mistake! ). A final brushing of egg yolk and it went into a hot oven (220 C) for 20 minutes. Fifteen minutes in, I whipped it out briefly and sprinkled the top with a dusting of icing sugar for the final five minutes of cooking to caramelise. It was big enough to feed eight – if I told you that the two of us ate half the galette in one sitting, there are only two conclusions: a) we are really piggy, or b) it was really good!
