King cake recipe
On the 6th of January, we celebrate Epiphany in France, with the famous king cake recipe !
There are many traditions around this date, but the most popular one is making a king cake. This is a type of pie that hides a little gift/charm (called a “fève” – bean) inside. Some people say that if you’re the one who finds the gift, you have to bring the next Galette (sometimes you eat a galette per day), others just keep the small gift in their wallet and it’s supposed to bring you good luck and money!
It’s so delicious and super easy to make!
Here’s our recipe…
- 10 minutes prep. 20 minutes baking
- Cheap
- Easy
Ingredients
- 2 puff pastries
- 1 vanilla pod
- 125g of almond powder
- 125 g of butter
- 125 g of icing sugar
- 2 egg yolks and 1 full egg
- Choose a bowl
- Open the vanilla pod and extract what’s inside. Add it to the bowl.
- Add the almond powder, butter, icing sugar and the eggs (and yolks)
- Mix everything together
- Switch on the oven. Roll out the puff pastry
- Take a fork and prick it.
- Put the stuffing onto the pastry. Make sure to keep about one inch free on each side to be able to close the Galette.
- Add the “fève” in the stuffing, (not in the center though, so you’ll be able to cut the pie) and make sure that it is able to fit in the oven.
- Roll out the second puff pastry and put it on the top.
- Stick the two sides of the puff pastries by pressing them together
- Draw the details that you want on the top. Bake for 25 minutes in the oven at 195° celsius (around 380° Fahrenheit)
From the Saturnalia, a Roman celebration glorifying the god Saturn and the Sun.
A meal was then shared between the masters and the slaves and a bean was introduced into the pancake whose round and golden appearance recalled the sun.
Whoever found the bean was named king of the meal, hence the name king cake.
This tradition kept after Christianity, the Vatican having made this feast coincide with the celebration of the arrival of the Three Kings in front of the cradle of the child Jesus.
As for the current king cake, it would have arrived much later, at the end of the 17th century.
If you liked the king cake recipe, stay tuned! There will be more French recipes in the next few days!
