Easy french galette des rois (Three Kings’ cake)

Piece of life

The excitement of the holidays is barely over, and it’s already Epiphany. Displease our hips, galette des Rois is not optional!

Today I was introducing this French tradition to some Brazilian friends. It was their very first galette, therefore I wanted to make it great. And it has been a success, they loved it! The 2 galettes vanished in no time. I let you imagine how proud I was.

Now, guess what flavours I choose? Nowadays, it is quite fashionable to revisit the traditional flavour of the galette… To be honest with you, my heart is going toward the classic version. So, of course, one of the galettes was with almond cream. But, and that’s a first for me, I tried a new flavour: hazelnut and lemon. For the latter, I’ll give you more details soon [spoiler: it was good].

About the galette des rois

Today I share my traditional galette des Rois recipe, which is composed of almond cream. It is very easy to make. The technical part is the puff pastry. I make my dough following chef Christophe Felder’s recipe of inverse puff pastry, you have the full step-by-step recipe on the blog. It’s not complicated, you just have to anticipate and wait a few hours before you can use the dough [because it will need to rest for a few hours]. I prepare it a few days ahead and keep it in the fridge [or freezer]. But if you don’t feel like making it, you can buy one. Then I can only recommend to go for a high-quality dough, pure butter, for a better result.

Galette des rois (Three Kings’ Cake)

Galette des rois is a traditional french pastry baked to celebrate Epiphany. Composed of a generous almond cream in a puff pastry, it's absolutely delicious. Click to discover my family recipe.

Course: Pastry

Cuisine: French

Keyword: Easy recipe, Epiphany, French pastry, Galette des rois, Three Kings’ cake

Portions 8 personnes

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Temps de repos: 1 hour hour

Cooking time: 40 minutes minutes

Print Recipe

Équipements

• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Pastry brush
• Sharp knife
• Trinket (fève)

Ingredients

• 2 puff pastry homemade or bought
• 125 g almond powder
• 80 g butter soft
• 80 g sugar
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp brown rum optional
• 1 pinch of salt

Pour la dorure

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp 35% cream

Instructions

• Spread your puff pastry to a height of about 2 mm, and form 2 circles of about 23 cm in diameter (you can use a tart ring to get identical sizes). Reserve in the refrigerator.
• Mix the creamy butter with a fork. Add the egg and the rum, mix well.
• Stir in flour, sugar and almond powder. Mix until you obtain a homogeneous paste.
• Place the first dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Spread the filling evenly over the surface of the dough, leaving a border of about 2 cm.
• Place the trinket in the stuffing, at the edge of the border (to be less likely to cut into it).
• Moisten the edge of the dough with a little water, then place the 2nd circle on top. Seal the 2 doughs well by pressing with your fingers on the edge (or you can use a 20 cm ring, place it on the dough, around the stuffing and press).
• Put the galette in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Take out the galette. Brush it with the egg yolk mixed with the milk. Make a small hole in the center (to allow humidity to evaporate off during cooking). Using a sharp knife, make the decoration of your choice on the top of the galette (though be careful not to cut the dough, just do some notches).
• Cook for about 40 minutes.