Galette des Rois

I volunteered to make a Galette des Rois for my book club and then I began to have second thought. Puff pastry has always intimidated me and I've never worked with it.  But I couldn't backtrack, so I did it. It came out pretty good too!

I made the frangipane the day before. Here is the recipe I used: 

108g almond flour

1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

100g sugar

100g butter, room temperature

2 eggs, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes.

2. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract

3. Add dry ingredients

4. Beat until smooth

5. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

I didn't want to make the dough myself, so I bought Dufour pastry sheets. First and last time, too, because it was damned expensive.  I needed two boxes, and each box was $13.99 at Whole Foods. Ouch! Each box contains one 9/14 x 13" sheet of 1/4 inch thick dough. So, there's minimal rolling out to do.  I rolled mine out to 10.25 x 13, really just flatted it a bit, on a very well floured counter. The dough is super easy to work with. 

I wanted to cut out one round a bit bigger than the other and used the top of a 9" cake pan and the bottom of a 10" inch cake pan. Strangely, though, they both ended up being pretty much the same size! I refrigerated them for 10 minutes after cutting them. I saved the scraps to make a treat for my guys at home the next day.

Next, I placed one of the rounds that was slightly smaller on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and using a measuring tape, marked a 1-inch border all around. I wet this border with water as thoroughly as I could. Using a piping bag outfitted with a 1/2 inch tip I piped a "snail" of frangipane, trying to center it as best as possible.  The recipe above yielded just the right amount of frangipane for this size dough circles!  I pressed an almond for the "fève" into the frangipane at a spot near the border. 

Then it was time to cover it all with the second round of puff pastry. I found this to be the hardest step. I tried to pat out the air and smooth the top down as best I could, but too much pressure was moving the frangipane around and I didn't want it to go into the border area. Next time I would try to pipe the frangipane to be a bit higher towards the center, just a little bit though because you don't want a dome.

I read many horror stories about people's galettes leaking frangipane because the borders weren't sealed properly.  So, I made a point of really squeezing, smashing down that border, even using extra water, trying to knead the borders together.  It did begin to look a bit like a raggedy mess, but the paranoia over possible leaks was strong!  I did read a tip online to not use confectioner's sugar because this does cause runny frangipane. I was glad to read this, because the original Dorie Greenspan recipe I was interested in called for confectioner's sugar. Eventually decided to leave it alone and went ahead and "fluted" the edges with the back of a knife. This consists of pressing the back of the knife into the dough every half inch or so which creates a nice scalloped border. Initially my knife impressions were a bit too close to one another but you quickly get the hang of it and it's a fun part of making the galette.

The next step is to cover the top of the galette with an egg wash made of an egg yolk and about 1/3 of the white.  I saved the rest of the egg white and had it for lunch, scrambled with another egg. I only covered the dome part of the galette over the frangipane, and didn't touch the scalloped border.  You're not supposed to let the egg drip down the side because it prevents the puff pastry from rising, and I wasn't taking any chances.

The next step is to let the galette rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (many recipes say longer) so the egg wash can dry and the dough can rest. I ended up leaving my galette in the fridge for 2 hours. During this time I cleaned up the kitchen, had lunch, and went snowshoeing in our yard. It had snowed for 2 days straight and it was a lot of fun to take advantage of it for snowshoeing! I ended up doing 6 laps around our yard, which is rather large.

Now it was time to prep the galette for baking. The next step is to cover the galette with egg wash again  and then carve the design you want using the tip of a knife. I tried a rather complicated leaf design I saw on a YouTube video and overall it came out ok. You don't want to pierce the dough all the way through when carving your design, but you do want to pierce it in several spots to let it vent steam. I pierced my galette in six spots using a toothpick.  I should have cut some vents a little bit larger, really with the tip of the knife and that's what I'll do next time.

I very lightly moistened the baking sheet under the parchment paper on either side of the galette, just wiped it lightly using a damp paper towel. I put the galette in the oven on the bottom rack, one notch under the center of the oven.

The galette has to bake at a very hot temperature for 20 minutes in order for the pastry to puff up, then you need to lower the oven temperature. I reviewed many recipes and they all had different instructions for time in the oven, so I ended up averaging things out and this is what I did

395F for 17 minutes

385F for 5 minutes

350 for 33 minutes

The total baking time was 55 minutes. Here is what happened

After about 10 minutes in the oven, my galette was already browning a lot. It took a lot of self control to leave it at 395F to 20 minutes and at the end of the day I just couldn't, I was too afraid it would get charred.  I'm still getting to know this oven, but I do know it's pretty powerful.

The galette also puffed up A LOT. It was the tallest galette I've ever seen LOL. More distressingly, it didn't rise evenly. The top of the galette was not smooth, but a bit lumpy.  The sides puffed out, too, although mercifully the dreaded frangipane leak didn't happen.  It was hard to know when to take out the galette. I just made sure the sides of the pastry were well browned.  I did cover the galette with aluminum foil about 20 minutes before taking it out. 

After 55 minutes in the oven, the galette was looking well browned on top and more importantly on the sides and I was sure it was done. Time to take it out of the oven.

The final step is to brush the galette with sugar syrup to give it a shine.  The sugar syrup is easy to make: equal parts sugar and water simmered until the sugar dissolves. You then need to let it cool. I used 1/3 cup of water and 1/3 cup sugar and had a lot of syrup left over.   I can definitely make a much smaller amount next time.  I brushed my galette several times, including the edges which looked a bit dull because they hadn't been covered with the egg wash, and it definitely got a beautiful shine.

I was pretty upset at how puffy and unlevel my galette was.  I know now not to work the edges of the pastry so hard, let it rest in the oven before baking to get it cold again, work the air out of the galette after covering and another trick I read is to put something along the four corners of the galette of the height you want it to be, then place a bakers sheet on top of it so the galette can't exceed that height. However, I don't know if that would cause a frangipane leak, or if the galette would stick to the baking sheet on top. I don't know about this!

Next time:

Use granulated sugar (as I did for this galette).

Don't work the edges so hard.

Cut slits for venting.

Put galette back in fridge before baking so it's cold.

Move top oven rack higher and place a baking sheet on it during the baking to shield the galette.

Make a smaller amount of syrup.

But, all's well that ends well. My friends loved the galette!  Everybody thought it was beautiful, nobody seemed to mind the puffiness and in fact once cut, it makes for a super nice, tall and thick piece.  I was thrilled that there wasn't a space between the frangipane and the top of the galette, as well.  Most importantly, the galette tasted amazing. I was so happy!

My favorite friend from this this group found the almond and was queen for the night, to cap off a perfect first Galette des Rois!