In France, to celebrate the Epiphany and the arrival of the Three Wisemen, people get together and “draw the king”. La Galette des rois, the King cake, is easy to make and will please everyone around the table.
Don’t worry, there is no need to be a believer to enjoy this frangipane cake and put the crown on your head.
How do we know who is the king/queen you might ask?
All you need is to hide a small token, a figurine, une feve (broad bean in French) in the cake. The one finding it, is the King or the Queen. Originally, the figurine was a baby Jesus or a broad bean. Nowadays, figures have many themes and people can even collection them.
The figurines, shape of the galettes and recipes can differ depending on the countries.
Ingredients for 6 people
- 2 puff pastry
- 2 eggs (or 15cl soya cream for plant based recipe)
- 75g soft butter
- 100g sugar
- 165g ground almond
- Optional: 1 figurine (or dried pulse)
Method
- Combine the butter, ground almond, sugar and the eggs (or soya cream) in a mixing bowl
- Place the first puff pastry on a tray. With the fork, prick the dough on its entire surface
- Fill in with the mixture to obtain an even surface.
- To hide the figurine, place near the crust, lengthwise (see picture).
- Cover with the second puff pastry and seal the edges.
- Optional: with the blade of a knife, draw a rosette.
- Optional: brush the surface with melted butter or one yolk to give it a golden colour
- Bake for 20-30 min, at 200C
Distribution of the slices
After cutting the galette into slices, the tradition says that the youngest goes under the table, closes his eyes and calls out name. This way the allocation of the slices is done randomly (yes, it is very serious).
Enjoy!
(photo below from pinterest)
Grow Dundee 
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