Every year, after the holidays, we boast of good resolutions and it's sworn, we eat lighter. And then, bim! The epiphany arrives, the opportunity to feast again, to share a good galette des rois and of course to have the bean. So, promised in February, you will stop but in the meantime, you can make a homemade dessert of the kings with our recipe for the easy galette des rois or discover those of the pastry chefs 2020, enjoy!
I like the galette, do you know how?
When it's done well, with butter in it …. Do you agree with this children's song?
To you the good pancakes, gourmet at will!
The thing with the galette des rois, you will have noticed, is that it can only be eaten at the beginning of the year … So if you want to feast and test several, and even make a easy recipe, we can anticipate and make the pleasure last before and after the epiphany.
Whether you are a fan of the frangipane galette des rois or the crown of kings, the main thing is to have fun!
Homemade galette
Easier and faster than it looks, with the homemade galette des rois, we nourish the pleasure of having made it yourself and being able to offer it endlessly. Quickly discover our tips, our recipes and our ideas to make your galette des rois a success. This year, you are the queen!
How to make the dough for the galette des rois?
The secret of the galette is first of all a good puff pastry.
For an easier galette des rois, buy a ready-made but quality puff pastry, preferably pure butter, just to compete with your pastry chef.
> Two well-sealed puff pastry discs
To get a nice pancake, you have to prick the bottom of the puff pastry to prevent it from rising and deforming your pancake.
Spread out your almond cream (the frangipane recipe here), leaving 2 cm of dough bare around the edge so that you can weld the edges of the 2 puff pastry together and prevent the cream from overflowing everywhere.
Brown the top of your cake with the yolk of an egg relaxed with a little water or milk, and let your imagination run wild to decorate the top of the dough with the tip of the knife.
> An aerial puff pastry
For the puff pastry to rise properly, make sure the dough is very cold. Once the galette des rois is made, put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before placing it in the oven.
> How to make a lighter frangipane?
Swap half the butter in your recipe for sour cream!
> Where to place the bean?
After having garnished your galette with your almond puree, place the bean. Position it near the edge to reduce the chance of falling on it when cutting!
What counts for a successful puff pastry is the knack. This is where it can make a pancake recipe more complex. But if you have the time, and you have excellent butter, making its dough is worth it.
Ingredients to make your homemade puff pastry:
- 250 g of T45 flour
- 200 g of cold butter
- 5 g fine salt
- 12.5 cl of water
- 5 g dark rum
Puff pastry recipe
1. Let all the puff pastry ingredients rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
2. In a bowl, dig a well in the flour, and add the diced butter from the refrigerator, salt and water last. Knead everything roughly. Reserve this dough in the fridge for 25 min.
3. Roll out your dough into a rectangle. Fold ⅓ of the dough over the central ⅓, and finally the last ⅓ on top of the 2 others. Press gently with the flat of my hand. Turn the dough ¼ turn clockwise. With your fingertip, print a mark in the dough at the bottom right. Film, set aside in the refrigerator for 25 min.
4. Then take out the dough by positioning with the mark at the bottom right that you had made. Spread it out delicately again in a rectangle and repeat the previous operation 3 times (to make a full turn), not forgetting to refrigerate 25 minutes between each quarter turn.
The easy recipe for the galette des rois
The most of the homemade galette des rois? Its very low price! Puff pastry, frangipane cream, butter, sugar and eggs, that's more than enough to make yourself a galette des rois that will have nothing to envy the pastry chef!
And it is very simple!
Here is a recipe for a classic galette des rois, with frangipane (a kind of pastry cream that turns into almond cream).
Ingredients for 6 to 8 pers.
2 very good quality puff pastry (the best is to make your homemade puff pastry, the video here)
100 g of soft butter
100g sugar
100 g of almond powder
1 egg
1 egg yolk
Read the rest of the recipe
An original galette, with Corsican clementine
Ingredients:
- a puff pastry divided into 2 discs
Ingredients for the almond cream:
- 120 g of softened butter
- 120 g of powdered sugar
- 120 g of almond powder
- 2 eggs
For the garnish and decoration:
- 10 Corsican clementines
- 220 g caster sugar
- 30 cl of water
- Orange dye
- 1 egg yolk
Recipe
Mix the butter, sugar, almond powder and 1 egg, then stir in the 2nd egg and finally add the rum. Add the already grated clementine zest and turn with a wooden spoon.
- To make the garnish
1. Grate the zest of a clementine and blanch it with the clementines just washed in boiling water for 1 hour. Drain carefully.
2. Cut 6 blanched clementines in 4 (including the one without zest), then chop the quarters and put to stew for 30 min in a saucepan with 65 g of sugar over medium heat.
3. Cut the remaining Corsican clementines into 4 and cook them for 30 minutes in syrup (with the remaining sugar and water).
1. On your floured work surface, spread your puff pastry in 2 circles of 20/25 cm in diameter, to a thickness of 7-8 mm.
2. Preheat the oven to th. 5-6 / 165-170 °.
3. Spread the almond cream in the center of a circle of dough, leaving 3-4 cm around the edge. Hide your bean. Add the chopped clementines on top. Wet the round with a brush with a little water and stick the 2nd disc of dough on it, pressing down well to weld the 2 doughs.
4. Decorate the upper part with the tip of a knife without piercing, and brush with the egg yolk + 1 tsp of water.
5. Bake your pancake for about 40 minutes (it must be golden brown). Decorate with the candied Corsican clementine quarters just before serving.
Other ideas for original pancakes
How about doing a few classic frangipane infidelities? Let your taste buds guide you to make a galette des rois that suits you!
> Swap the almond powder against ground hazelnuts, pistachios or grated coconut … simple but effective.
> Scent the cream : rum, Amaretto, vanilla extract, orange blossom water, citrus zest, cinnamon or even cocoa powder, bet on spices and scented waters to personalize your frangipane.
> Be inventive: If I tell you galette des rois pistachio cherry or chestnut cream, you can only melt with pleasure at the idea of biting into it! So twist your frangipane, and use something other than almonds to garnish the cake or add chocolate for example.
> Seared apple, pear or apple wedges for a Normandy galette, chestnut puree for an Ardèche galette, calissons cream for an ultra gourmet galette … limit your imagination.
An idea for a galette des rois apple prune recipe here
> You can also sprinkle your cake with icing sugar and use a pretty stencil to decorate the top.
The book you need: Pancakes, in the "A L'Ecole des pâtissiers" collection, features 20 chef's recipes that twist the traditional galette. After explaining how to prepare homemade puff pastry (and reverse puff pastry), you will first find the recipe for the frangipane pancake. Then, the great pastry chefs competed in originality and gluttony to adapt this recipe, with lots of advice. At the end of the book, you will be able to revise your bases thanks to a super clear glossary.
Pancakes, First editions, 19.95 € online.
© First editions
The other traditions for Epiphany
Did you know that there are other galettes than the galette des rois with frangipane to celebrate Epiphany?
In the south of France, the cake is brioche, in the shape of a crown and decorated with candied fruits: which represent the crown jewels.
Discover our article on the king's brioche with its recipe.
© Bo & Mie 2020
In the southwest of France, it is a brioche crown covered with pearl sugar that delights the taste buds for the Epiphany.
There is also in Savoy a cake flavored with anise, and Franche-Comte, a Franc-Comtoise pancake that can be enjoyed all year round, flavored with orange blossom … to discover.
The galettes des rois 2020, the pastry chefs are pulling out the big game
Each year, the great pastry chefs of hotels and other renowned gastronomic houses offer superb pancakes, classics well buttered or on the contrary offbeat: gluten-free, filled with flavors other than frangipane.
Make your mouth water with our 2020 selection of galettes des rois des pros:
© Fauchon 2020
Find all our other easy cake recipes in which you could also slip a bean!