Easing Back Into Things: Puff Pastry Style

The Pastry gods were looking down on me yesterday.  After such a grueling trip back to France, they decided to grace me with the delicious task of making Palmiers and Galette des Rois on my first day back, both of which are made from puff pastry - my favorite.

Galette des Rois is a King Cake that is made each year on January 6th to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.  It is a huge round puff pastry cake stuffed with almond and pastry cream.  Doesn't sound too shabby now does it?  Fit for a king I guess.  However, I prefer the King Cakes made in Louisiana for Mardi Gras, but I guess I might be a bit biased. 

It is obvious, though, that the modern Mardi Gras King Cake has its origins in the traditional French King Cake.  They are both made only once a year for a specific occasion, and they both contain a little surprise that is baked into the cake. Everyone wants to be the person who gets the piece of cake with the surprise baked in it.  Of course in France, the surprise, called une feve, is a beautiful porcelain trinket that could be an Eiffel Tower, a Fleur de Lis, or even a soccer ball.  In Louisiana, on the other hand, it's always a plastic baby (which had never seemed odd to me until I just wrote that sentence). 

Galette des Rois

Starting ingredients for the inverse puff pastry.

Sift flour, make a well and add water and salt.

Mix.

After mixing the water with some flour, add the melted butter.

And combine to make the dough.  Rest in the fridge 15 minutes.

Start the beurre manie which will surround the puff pastry dough that is resting.  This is why it is called inverse puff pastry because the butter is on the outside of the dough not the inside.

Beurre manie is mixed and will also rest in the fridge.

Then, both are rolled out and the first dough is placed on top of the beurre manie.

Let the turning begin.

Rolling out the dough after the first turn.

Making a double turn.

While the dough rests, make almond paste and pastry cream and blend together.

After another set of turns, divide dough into four.

With each fourth, place two opposite corners together.

Followed by the other two corners.

Flip over and roll into a ball.

Then roll it out into a circle.

Ring the circle with egg wash.

Place the almond and pastry cream mixture in the center.

And top with another circle of the pastry dough.

Make the edges pretty.

Cover with egg wash and rest in the fridge a few minutes.

Chef showing us how to decorate the cake.

My two decorating attempts.

Into the oven they go.

Until golden brown.  Then brush with simple syrup.

Et volia!

When we all were given a piece of the cake, guess who got the feve...

I did and it was an Eiffel Tower.

King and Queen of Pastry for the day!