Sonntag, 17. Januar 2010

Galette des Rois

Tomorrow is my first French lesson after the holidays (at least for me, because I skipped the last week due to a New Years party at the office), and I as I didn't arrive to make a Buche de Noel for the last session before Christmas, at least I wanted to ry a Galette/Gateau des Rois for the first session afterwards. The galette is a traditional French "cake" with some regional differences (in the region around Lyon it is just a Brioche, in the south it is brioche with candied fruits, in the Ile the France around Paris it is puff pastry, mostly with a Frangipane cream). One of the folks at the course once stated that she loves Frangipane, so the descision which version to opt for was easy. (It would have been easy anyways, as solely brioche doen's sound too exciting for me, event though I like brioche very much. But a "cake" made of nothing else - no, that's a bit boring. And candied fruits are no favorite of mine and anyways hard to get at a fair price. Some are even impossible to get in Vienna, as candied melons.)
In the cake or galette, a fève ("bean") is baked in. Meanwhile, many bakers use small china figurines, mostly lucky charms. The one who finds the fève in his or her piece of cake is the king of the day.


I found a good recipe here, and rigth at the moment the Galette is in the oven.
But boy, it was a whole mess! My frangipane didn't get thick enough (the pastry cream was ok, but when I mixed it with the other stuff, it got liquid again and didn't thicken anymore. Maybe I should have chilled it longer?)
So I had serious trouble with assembling the cake. Finally I put the first layer of dough into a small tarte pan, so I was able to spread the liquid frangipane and flap over the overlapping dough. Then I took the second layer to make a cover. That was a very finicking and delicate act, but finally abd after some troubles Iarrived to stick together the two layers, took the galette out of the pan (I used one with a removable bottom) and transferred it to the baking rack.
Yes.
And what I forgot was the most important part - the fève...
So, lift the top again, put in the fève and close it again.

Puh. So, done. 10 min are over. One recipe told me to bake 30-40 mins. another one calls for 10-12 mins. Well. I'll have a look now!

Update: And that's what I got out of the oven...

 I didn't arrive to make a nice design into the cover layer, but nevertheless, at least from the outside it looks very well! I am doing some sample pieces right now, log-shaped ones, because I don't want to bring the galette to the French course without knowing that it is at least esculent!

But I have no idea what to make with the rest of the Frangipane, because I have almost the half still in the pot...