Carnival season is hands-down my favorite time of year, and king cake is one of those confections I just can’t say no to. Whether classic cinnamon swirl, cream-cheese-filled king cake or a traditional French galette des rois, it’s probably having a date with my mouth.
We were fortunate enough to have a dear friend ship us a king cake from the legendary Manny Randazzo’s, and it totally hit the spot. Most years, I wind up making several king cakes throughout carnival season- this recipe from Sucré, on Magazine Street, is my go to, and Randazzo’s and Sucré are by far the best king cakes available by mail. but i have a serious affinity for the French king cake, or galette des rois… la Boulangerie makes my favorite in town.
But, according to #12 of my #16in16, this is the year of taking on those intimidating cookery projects. So after a brief foray of pricing out having galettes de rois shipped, it was game on. As luscious as this pistachio-and-citron version from Gontran Cherrier (who makes my very favorite croissants in Paris) looks, I decided to save that and focus on the traditional French almond frangipane filled confection. I worked with Clotilde and David Lebovitz‘s recipes, adapting them and making the frangipane from scratch.
I didn’t trust myself and my limited artistic talent to provide even decorative cut work, so lots of overlapping salad plate tracings did the job with style. It’s super important to flute and seal the edges properly so that the frangipane doesn’t bubble out. And make sure your egg wash doesn’t drip down the sides- it will inhibit the pastry’s puffing. With traditional king cakes, you’d bake in a ceramic fève, or insert a plastic baby into the baked king cake. Here though, I went super old-school and baked in a whole almond (and was a total five-year old and stole it from David’s slice to claim the carnival queen title.)
Ingredients
- 1 package all-butter puff pastry, thawed.
- 1 whole almond, piece of candied fruit, or oven-safe fève
- 1 cup (100 g) sliced or slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
- pinch salt
- zest of one orange
- 3 1/2 ounces (100g) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons good rum
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 egg yolk, beaten with one tablespoon milk
Preparation
- Working with one half of pastry at a time, roll out and trace a large dinner plate with a sharp knife. Stack large pastry circles between peices of parchment paper, and refrigerate for at least a half hour.
- Meanwhile, make almond filling. Pulse almonds with a few tablespoons of sugar until all finely ground.
- Move sweetened almond flour to bowl of stand mixer. Add rest of sugar, salt, orange zest.
- On medium speed, mix in butter until completely incorporated. Add whole eggs one at a time, then rum and almond extract. (The mixture may not look smooth- totally okay.) Cover and chill.
- Preheat over to 375 Line baking sheet with parchment, and center one chilled pastry circle.
- Spread the almond filling evenly over pastry, leaving a 1-inch (3cm) border. Place almond, candied fruit, or fève (prize) somewhere in the almond filling.
- Brush water generously around pastry edges. Place the other pastry circle on top of the galette and press down to seal the edges very well. (At this point, you can chill the galette for ten minutes or so to make it a bit more workable.)
- Flute the sides of the dough (as shown in the photo) and use a sharp knife to create a design on top. Brush yolk-and-milk mixture carefully and evenly over the top. Use a knife to poke a few holes in the top, to allow steam to escape.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until well-browned. Remove from oven and cool (galette will deflate). Serve warm or at room temperature.
loveRavayna