Kings Day, 12th Night, and a recipe for a French*Galette des Rois*

Saturday was 12th night a festival celebrated very differently all over the world but I decided that to mark the occasion I would make a King's Cake or Galette des Rois, a French cake common to Paris but not to the Celtic countries of the British Isles. IMG_5430.JPG
Being keen on new recipes and new culinary experiences this was going to mean puff pastry from the beginning - flour and butter. I had remembered making this in school in South Wales and maybe once or twice afterwards and searching through recipe books in the local library (which by the way has an amazing book about Welsh cookery) Traditional Food from Wales by Bobby Freeman (Hippocrene Books from New York, 1997) the filling I decided would be almond creme (Crème D’amandes) and not frangipane and with pear as Raymond Blanc suggests. 12th night in Wales is associated with taking down the Christmas decorations and bad luck that could follow if you do not. The puff pastry itself used 8 oz of butter to 8 oz flour, and the almond creme another 4 oz butter so this was not the healthy option cake for a Kings Cake but it was the best epiphany cake I have baked.

Recipe
Puff pastry make from 8oz butter, 2 cups or 8 oz flour (making is time consuming but it is worth it but this can be substituted with store bought pastry).

Almond Cream

1 stick or 4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temperature,

3/4 cup almond flour (or finely ground almonds if you don’t have flour)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of rum (optional)

In addition I used 2 pears in the galette which made it less heavy and absolutely delicious the day after baking.

Instructions
For the almond cream, cream together butter and sugar and add eggs - as if making a sponge - then add the almond flour or ground almonds, vanilla essence and rum (if using).
For the pastry, roll out two equal circles and fill with almond creme and sliced pear and press the pastry together firmly.
Make an decoration on the top and place in a hot oven on a baking sheet perhaps using also some greaseproof paper and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.
Cool and eat!

Have a wonderful day and think about the Galette des Rois with pears for next 12th night!