Traditionally made at Epiphany, this is a crisp pastry filled with almond cream sometimes called frangipane. Give yourself plenty of time to make this, it will be worth it! You will have some pastry trimmings left over and some extra creme patissiere.
Lame or very sharp knife for scoring, pastry brush, baking parchment or silicon sheet, rolling pin
Ingredients
Rough puff pastry
225gramsFlour
170gramsButter unsalted French (President) or Lurpackstraight from the fridge
140millilitresWatercold
5millilitresLemon juice
3gramsSalt
Creme Patissiere
200millilitresMilkwhole or semi skimmed
20gramsCaster sugar
20 gramsCornflour
5millilitresVanilla extract
Almond Creme - Creme d'Amande
75gramsGround almonds
75gramsCaster sugar
50gramsButter preferably unsalted
10millilitresRumor orange liqueur
20gramsOrange peelchopped very finely
Instructions
Rough Puff PastryPlace the flour and salt into a bowl.
Cut the butter into cubes approximately 1 cm or 1/2 inch in size.
Tip the butter cubes into the flour and very lightly mix to coat the butter in the flour.
Add the water and lemon juice. Mix together gently. It will be a rough shaggy mess. Press together
Turn out of the bowl, drawing the mixture together gently. Roll the pastry out into a rectangle, about 1 cm 1/2 thick. You will now fold the pastry in thirds. Fold down the top third of the pastry towards you. Fold up the bottom third of the pastry on top the third you have just folded.
Turn the pastry anti clockwise, so the wider open fold is to the right. Press the rolling pin into the pastry to flatten it a little. Press your finger in once on a corner of the pastry to show you have folded once. Cover the pastry and put in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. I use a plastic bag.
For the second turn, take the pastry out of the fridge, roll gently to form a rectangle about 22 cm long and 15 cm wide. Always keep the wider open fold to the right. Fold again 1/3 from the top, and 1/3rd up. Press lightly. Make a mark to show the 2nd fold. Chill. Do this twice more resting for 15 minutes each time.
Creme Patissiere (Pastry cream)In a saucepan, mix the cornflour and sugar together. Mix the milk in little by little to avoid lumps (a whisk is ideal for this). Heat the mixture until thickened. Take off the heat and beat in the egg and vanilla. Allow the mixture to cool, covered, until required. Store in fridge if not ready to use.
Almond Creme - Creme d'amandeIf you have a stand mixer, place the flour, sugar, butter and egg and flavourings and mix together well. Set aside.By hand, mix the butter and sugar together until the mixture lightens in colour, add the flour and egg and flavourings. Mix well together.
Assembling the Galette des RoisRoll your pastry to about 3 mm thick making sure you have plenty of flour underneath the pastry so it doesn't stick. Using a plate or bowl about 22 cm in diameter as a template cut out one circle . You will then cut the second pastry circle a little larger. Cut a second circle using the same template but 2 cm wider on each side. You will have some pastry remaining that you can use to cut two much smaller disks. Place the offcuts on top of each other before rolling out.
Move the smaller of the two disks onto some baking parchment or silpat. You will now spread the filling.
You will now mix some of the creme patissiere into the creme d'amande. Mix both cremes so that they are smooth. Place the almond cream on the scales. Zero the scales and mix in 100 grams of the creme patissiere (you will have some left). Mix well.
You are now going to put this mixture onto the pastry circle. You can put the mixture into a bag and pipe it or simply use a spoon. Leave a 2.5 cm / 1 inch border. If you want to add a token for King day, add one at this point.
Beat an egg and paint a strip of egg around the edge of the pastry so that the top will stick well to the bottom.
Place the larger circle on top of the smaller circle lining up the edges over the filling and press down on the edges only.
With the point knife held at 45 degrees go round the edge of the circle knocking the top and bottom layers together.
You can also make scallop shapes on the edge by using your knife to bring the pastry in every centimetre or so. Prick the pastry a few times with a very fine point to allow steam to escape.
Brush the entire pastry with egg and place in the fridge overnight uncovered.
Just before you want to bake, using a lame or sharp knife, make a design on the pastry. Be careful not to cut right through. Brush with egg again.
Pre heat the oven to 230C, /450F then lower to 180 C/375F when you put your galette into the oven
Bake the galettes . Check after 20 minutes and rotate. Check after 30 minutes and cover if it is getting very golden. It should be ready after about 40 minutes. Do not be tempted to take out too early as it will not crisp enough.
Serve warm.
Keyword French pastry, Galette des Rois, Patisserie