Have you ever tasted la Gallette des Rois?!
Answers: if so how was it? what is it made of?
Yes it is lovely. there is a "feve" hidden into it, so you must chew very carefully, and the person who finds it is the king or the queen !
Oh the traddition in France, on the day of the kings (epiphanie) is that the youngest person present goes under the table so as not to see what is going on. Then the host cuts the cake, and the one under the table says who each part goes too ;) The king or queen gets to chose a mate and kiss.
Sounds like "King's Cake" which is very popular during Mardi Gras - not sure of the cake's recipe, but know there is always a hidden treasure - usually a small plastic baby.
galette des Rois (in the northern half of France)
Mardi Gras King Cake - Traditional New Orleans
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients
1/2 cup warm water (110°-115°) 2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar plus 1 teaspoon sugar 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups of sifted flour
1 tsp nutmeg 2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon zest 1/2 cup warm milk
5 egg yolks 1 stick butter cut into slices and softened plus 2 tablespoons more softened butter
1 egg slightly beaten with 1 tablespoon milk 1 tsp cinnamon
1 one inch plastic baby doll (optional and a choking hazard) Colored Sugars
Green, purple and yellow paste 12 tbsp sugar
King Cake Icing 3 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice 3 -6 tsp water
Directions for the Cake:
Pour the warm water into a small shallow bowl, and sprinkle yeast and 2 teaspoons sugar into it. Allow the yeast and sugar to rest for three minutes then mix thoroughly. Set bowl in a warm place, for ten minutes or until yeast bubbles up and mixture almost doubles up in volume. Combine 3 1/2 cups of flour, remaining sugar, nutmeg and salt, and sift into a large mixing bowl. Stir in lemon zest. Seperate center of mixture to form a hole and pour in yeast mixture and milk. Add egg yolks and using a wooden spoon slowly combine dry ingredients into the yeast/milk mixture. When mixture is smooth, beat in 8 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon at a time and continue to beat 2 minutes or until dough can be formed into a medium soft ball.
Place ball of dough on a lightly floured surface and knead like bread. During this kneading, add up to 1 cup more of flour (1 tablespoon at a time) sprinkled over the dough. When dough is no longer sticky, knead 10 minutes more until shiny and elastic.
Using a pastry brush, coat the inside of a large bowl evenly with one tablespoon softened butter. Place dough ball in the bowl and rotate until the entire surface is buttered. Cover bowl with a moderately thick kitchen towel and place in a draft free spot for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the dough doubles in volume. Using a pastry brush, coat a large baking sheet with one tablespoon of butter and set aside.
Remove dough from bowl and place on lightly floured surface. Using your fist, punch dough down with a heavy blow. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top, pat and shake dough into a cylinder. Twist dough to form a curled cylinder and loop cylinder onto the buttered baking sheet. Pinch the ends together to complete the circle. Cover dough with towel and set it in draft free spot for 45 minutes until the circle of dough doubles in volume. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush top and sides of cake with egg wash and bake on middle rack of oven for 25 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Place cake on wire rack to cool. If desired, at this time, you can "hide" the plastic baby in the cake. The one who finds the baby in the piece of the cake is responsible for bring the King Cake to the next Mardi Gras party.
For the Pecan filling:
1 Cup Pecan halves, broken up slightly and roasted until fragrant
2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Allspice
1 pinch of salt
4 Tbsp Steen’s Cane Syrup
Combine all of the ingredients together.
Directions for Colored sugars:
Green, purple, & yellow paste
12 tablespoons sugar
Squeeze a dot of green paste in palm of hand. Sprinkle 4 tablespoons sugar over the paste and rub together quickly. Place this mixture on wax paper and wash hands to remove color. Repeat process for other 2 colors. Place aside. Start with about 3 TEASPOONS and that gives you a kind of glaze. Do one section, then sprinkle on the sugar, then the next (it dries really quickly!)A reader commented - "watch out for the purple sugar - mine turnd blue because of all the lemon in the icing. So I mixed and matched some icing until it was purple, then put in on the last two sections, then the sugar".
Directions for Icing:
3 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 - 6 teaspoons water
Combine sugar, lemon juice and 3 teaspoons water until smooth. If icing is too stiff, add more water until spreadable. Spread icing over top of cake. Immediately sprinkle the colored sugars in individual rows consisting of about 2 rows of green, purple and yellow. Cake is served in 2" - 3" pieces
It was very good, I hope you like the recipe.
Hope this helps. Good luck and enjoy.
I am a former clasically trained french chef, and the second girl is right, it is a light cake made with butter, almonds, almond paste and is served as she stated on or around the night of the epihany.
It tastes like a almond cookie but but lighter and is nice with a sweet wine like a sauternes or Banyol, it is rich so you get a very small piece.