Galette des rois

It's all about the taste in the end if you ask me :)

Galette des rois is a French King Cake. It's a cake tradition in France to celebrate Epiphany which takes place in January, and the cake sale (and the cake eating!) usually starts and lasts throughout January month.

After reviewing many recipes online back in 2008, and tasting many versions of frangipane (almond cream with egg to put it simple), I decided to make my own version, which is mixing the frangipane with pastry cream (1-to-1 ratio), because I don't like when it tastes too much almond. I find it less dry and more tasty when the pastry cream is added. Why not try both versions and judge for yourself (one with and one without pastry cream)? The professional French will probably say that is not the true frangipane cream, but hey it's you baking and cooking. You decide!

For my version of the French King Cake, you'll need:
2 round puff pastry sheets (buy or make)
1 cup frangipane almond cream (recipe below)
1 cup pastry cream (recipe below)
1 vanilla pod
Egg for egg wash
Sirup for glacing - optional, but I don't recommend skipping this step (it gives shininess and crispiness - a tip by Pierre Herme)
1 figurine (feve) - optional

Tools
Bowl, whisk, blender, brush, sauce pans

Puff pastry
I made puff pastry by using Gordon Ramsay's quick rough-puff recipe. If you find a ready puff pastry (one with good butter instead of margarin), use it if you don't have time to make from scratch.

Gordon Ramsay's puff pastry recipe
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2403/roughpuff-pastry-

Pastry cream recipe
Most basic recipes use milk. I like my pastry cream rich, round and smooth, so I use half milk half cream. "Light" products (light cream, light milk etc) do not work for me taste wise. I just don't like to compromise the taste :) It's either full milk and full cream or no pastry cream. The recipe below yields approx 2 cups of cream.

Ingredients for pastry cream:
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
1/2 cup white castor sugar
2 tablespoons maizenna (30gr corn or potato starch)
1 egg
2 yolks
2 tablespoons of butter (30-50 grams)

Tools:
Saucepan, whisk,  bowl

Method:
1. Bring milk, cream and vanilla seeds to a boil in a medium sauce pan (use a deep one with enough room for stirring without spilling all over). Use low to medium heat and increase to medium, high heat may burn the bottom of the pan (which means you will need o redo).
2. While you wait for the milk to boil, whisk sugar and cornstarch in a deep bowl, add the eggs and continue whisking until the sugar is more or less dissolved
3. Once the milk has reach the boiling (bubbles), move aside and pour about 1/2 of the hot milk to the egg mixture and stir quickly and continuously (hot with cold may cook and create lumps if you don't stir fast)
4. Pour everything back to the remaining milk, put back the pan on the stove (medium heat) and continue whisking until it cooks and thickens. Continue whisking for 1 more min. Do not overcook as the eggs will separate.
5. Put aside for the temperature to drop (you can touch with still warm but not burning hot) before whisking in the butter.
6. Store in a plastic container (you can cover a pan with plastic film and pour the mixture in it to avoid it to stick but why waste more plastic than necessary?)
7. Keep cold

Frangipane cream
Now where did I save my Frangipane recipe? Ok, here it is (from memory):

Frangipane cream mixed with pastry cream

Ingredients for frangipane:
60gr icing sugar (4 tbl spoons)
60gr soft unsalted butter - room temperature
150gr almond powder
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 egg
Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
1 tablespoon rhum (15gr) - optional
A bit of grated tonka bean or bitter almond - optional

Tool:
Blender preferably (if you want a smooth mixture)
Method:
Blend together the soft butter with the icing sugar, add the almond powder, vanilla seeds, egg, then the liquid. Mix week. Then add the same amount of pastry cream (1cup) with the frangipane cream (1 cup). You can freeze leftover cream (I did).

Sirup for glacing (makes tart shine, colourful and crispy)
40gr water
50gr sugar
Bring sugar and water in a sauce pan to a boil until all the sugar is dissolved. Turn off and leave aside.

Assembling method

Piping gives a neat and even surface but you can add a lump of cream and spread it out - leave 2 cm edge

1. Add a lump of cream on disk #1 and spread it in a circle leaving about 2 cm from the edge. You can pipe if you want it to look neat, pretty and even. I don't have time and I don't need additional dishing items :)

Following French tradition you should hide a feve (typically a porcelain figurine) inside the cream (I used a white whole almond). The one who gets a slice with the feve in it will become king.
2. Wash the edge with egg wash and cover with the second disk. Egg wash the top disk. 

3. Keep cold in the fridge for 15 min. 

4. Turn the oven on 190-200C degrees (depending on oven performance, for instant at work 190 and at home 200 c degrees). 

5. Take out the cake from the fridge. 

6. Slash patterns with a sharp knife. Google for pattern tips :)

7. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 min (depending on oven performance). 

8. Take out and glace with sirup. 

9. Bake again for another 3-5 min until golden brown. 

10. When the cake temperature has cooled down, the top will be very crispy due to the sirup glacing.

For shiny crust, glace with syrup and bake 3-5 additional minutes