A number of years in the past, I used to be a younger pastry cook dinner working the early morning shift when a fellow baker offered me with a slice of galette des rois—French kings’ cake—to get pleasure from with my cup of espresso. A layer of aromatic almond cream perfumed with rum was generously sandwiched between two layers of crisp, golden puff pastry, and, as is historically completed in France, the baker had snuck a fève—a small bean, nut, or porcelain appeal—into the filling. In northern France, households collect to get pleasure from galette des rois collectively on January 6 for Epiphany, which celebrates the three smart males, or the three kings, assembly child Jesus. 

“In accordance with custom,” journalist Ajesh Patalay writes within the Monetary Occasions, “the youngest and most harmless within the room (not all the time the identical factor) climbs below the desk and chooses who receives every slice.” Whoever receives the little trinket is monarch for the day. In southern France, the custom is barely completely different: Bakers put together a gateau des rois with a dough much like that of brioche, then high it with pearl sugar and candied fruit. (In French, galette refers to a spherical, flat pastry, whereas gateau usually refers to a risen cake.) The gateau is far nearer to the colourful, cinnamon-scented confection eaten in New Orleans and all through South Louisiana from Epiphany by means of carnival season’s end result on Mardi Gras. 

Although galette des rois’ origins are murky, the pastry reportedly has roots within the historic Roman pageant of Saturnalia. “Saturnalia was an event when many social hierarchies have been subverted; specifically, enslaved folks got momentary freedom and invited to share cake with their enslavers,” the encyclopedia Britannica notes. “A mock king, generally known as the Saturnalicius princeps, was designated for the pageant, often by hiding a fava bean or a coin inside a cake.” Someday through the Center Ages, folks started making ready the cake for Epiphany, a practice that continues to be to this present day. 

Many French households select to buy their galette des rois, however you’ll probably need to make your individual if you happen to don’t dwell in France or close to a French bakery. Fortunately it’s not tough to organize: All you want is a few almond cream, which comes collectively shortly with the assistance of an electrical mixer, and a few store-bought puff pastry. Right here’s how.

Find out how to Make Galette des Rois: Key Strategies

Make a flavorful almond cream. As a result of galette des rois is so easy and will get its taste from simply two elements—almond cream and puff pastry—it’s value taking the time to make a really scrumptious almond cream. Right here, I take advantage of our contributor Zola Gregory’s almond cream, which will get its daring taste from toasted almond flour and a mix of almond extract, vanilla extract, and brandy or rum. (You might even see one of these almond cream known as “frangipane” in different recipes, however frangipane is technically a mixture of almond cream and pastry cream.)

Use an all-butter puff pastry. Making your individual puff pastry from scratch is admirable, however there are good store-bought choices that may do the trick. Simply make sure to use puff pastry that’s made with butter, which could have a richer, extra nice taste than doughs made with soybean, canola, or different impartial oils. Dufour is one all-butter puff-pastry model we like, and it is what I utilized in my exams. 

Use an edible trinket. In France, it’s conventional to cover a dried bean or porcelain appeal within the galette. Some bakeries even nestle a plastic figurine into the filling. Out of an abundance of warning, I desire utilizing a nut like an almond or hazelnut, that are utterly edible and soften within the filling because the pastry cooks, minimizing the chance of choking. 

Preserve the pastry as chilly as doable. There’s loads of chilling and freezing time on this recipe, and that’s no mistake. Conserving the galette chilly does two issues: It helps the gluten loosen up, which minimizes the chance of shrinkage when the pastry bakes. Chilling additionally ensures the butter stays agency. Because the dough bakes, the butter melts, creating little pockets of steam that assist the dough rise and set into crispy, flaky layers. 

Begin your bake at a excessive temperature. For the flakiest galette, I begin baking the pastry at a excessive temperature: 400ºF/205ºC. This may increasingly really feel counterintuitive—in spite of everything, the aim up till this level was to maintain the butter as chilly as doable—however it is a method many bakers use to assist the butter within the pastry soften shortly, which creates the steam essential for the crispy layers I discussed above and helps the crust set.

With the information above, you’ll have the ability to make a bakery-worth galette des rois. And even if you happen to aren’t the fortunate recipient of the fève, having fun with a slice of this pastry will definitely make you are feeling like royalty.

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