7 Jan 2013

The French Galette des Rois (almond tart) and variations

In his best-seller book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, the very clever Dr Gray explains how different men and women grade acts of love from their loved ones.
While men would give 1 point to a small act of love from their wives (ie: a nice dinner), and 10 points to a big one (ie: a fancy car); women would only give 1 point to all acts, whether big or small.
What matters to women is the number of acts of love from their Lover. If you want to get points, you need to multiply them.
(Gentlemen, I am truly very sorry for you)

As a new year is starting and I'm in a really good mood, I've decided to give you, gentlemen, a little trick to make your lives easier: if you make / buy a cake, it can actually reward you with several points.


For example, all cakes made with banana, chocolate, toffee, whipped cream or almond count double for me.
(Serve me a strawberry mousse and you'll lose 10 points in one go!)

So, all you have to do is find out what your woman likes to stock up on brownie points!  




The French Galette Des Rois
(almond tart)


The Galette des rois (Three Kings' cake) is baked in France for the Epiphany. We have many galette recipes in France, depending on the region you come from. My favourite is definitely this one : the almond galette, which actually is my favourite dessert ever.

If you want to fully follow the galette des rois tradition, hide a coin in your galette and get a paper crown. Whoever finds the coin in his/her piece of galette will be crowned King or Queen for the day.

It's so delicious and so easy to make, just forget the Epiphany has passed and bake one!

Ingredients : 

2 discs of puff pastry
2 eggs + 1 yolk
150g caster sugar
150 ground almonds
150g butter, softened
few drops of almond essence

Make the tart

Preheat the oven at 190deg C

1/ Cut two identical discs of pastry (the size of a pizza) and lay one onto a baking tray lined with parchment. Keep the other pastry disc aside


2/ In a large bowl, beat together (with an electric whisk if possible) the butter, eggs, sugar, ground almonds and almond essence until light and fluffy

3/ Spread the almond mix on top of the pastry, leaving 1 cm free all around the edges, which you'll lighlty brush with water (to make it sticky)

4/ Lay the second pastry disc on top of the bottom one, and stick the edges pressing lightly with your finger tips. Seal them by scoring the edges with a sharp knife (it will help the pastry to fully rise). Score a squared  pattern on the top of the tart. 

5/ Brush the tart with egg wash (made with the egg yolk put aside mixed with a little water to dilute it)
 
6/ Bake for 20/30 min until golden and well risen. Serve warm.

The recipe above will give you enough almond mix to make a big tart and some additional small ones. So why don't you keep some pastry aside and try my wicked variations of this traditional French dessert?

My wicked variations of the Galette des Rois

American style: with peanut butter 
Additional ingredient: peanut butter
At stage 3, I spread a thin layer of peanut butter on top of my pastry before covering it with the almond mix. The sweet-savoury association of the peanut butter and the almond mix is surprising and delicious!

British style: with black cherries jam
Additional ingredient: black cherries jam
At stage 3, I spread a thin layer of cherry jam on top of my pastry before covering it with the almond mix. If the Galette des Rois and a Bakewell Tart has a baby under a cherry tree, this would be it! 




What's on the Drinks Menu Alex?
A sweet white wine : Muscat, Gewurztraminer Late Harvest
or a sparlking white wine : crémant from the Loire Valley, a Blanquette de Limoux or a Champagne
 

2 comments:

  1. Ma petite creme, je suis d'humeur aujourd'hui à dévorer une quelconque sucrerie, ce sont certains imprévus du voyage qui font ça... Et ta galette est très appetissante! Encore bravo pour ce blog

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Merci ma petite voyageuse!
      Bon vent, bon voyage et reviens-moi vite (avec plein d'ingredients bizarres d'à travers le monde)
      Miss you!

      Delete

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