Galette des Rois

When I was 11, I had to take an exam to get into the secondary school all my friends and I wanted to go to. There was one section about religion, including the question ‘What is the Christian holiday on January 6th?’ that neither my best friend or I knew. After the exam we were so upset as our parents told us straight away it was Epiphany and we thought we’d never be able to get into this school. Luckily we both did, but never again will either of us forget Epiphany! I’m especially pleased I found out about it as it gives me an opportunity to bake traditional Epiphany desserts, like this Galette des Rois.A Galette des Rois is made up of an almond frangipane filling encased in puff pastry. I saw a lot of variations on the original – some included sliced pears in the middle, some used chocolate puff pastry, some frangipanes had added flavours such as rose extract. I chose to stick to the original, despite how tasty the variations sounded, because it was the first time I’d ever made one. It’s traditional to hide a little trinket or bean in the filling which I duly did and found in my lunchbox slice the next day!Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of a slice of the galette, but the swirls on top look so pretty it hopefully doesn’t matter too much. I used a Raymond Blanc recipe, and it worked quite well although some of the almond filling exploded out one side of the galette. I’m not sure whether this was due to the texture of the filling (was it too liquid?) or just that I didn’t close the puff pastry edges enough, but the exploded filling still baked up nicely on the tray and just meant there was quite a thin layer in the centre. I also added extra ground almonds and almond extract to boost the flavour and firm it up a bit. Overall, it was a really lovely and relatively simple dish. It’s best straight out the oven as that is when the puff pastry is crispest and I think it would make a delicious and simple dinner party dessert any time of the year. Enjoy!