Galette des rois aux 8 trésors ? 8 treasures in kings? pie

For the jour des rois, the day of the Kings, the French custom is to share a galette pie with family, or any group of friends, coworkers, student. A token is hidden inside. The person finding it will the King for a year. King of what ? Er… you have 12 months to find. There are several recipes of galettes des rois, but the pie filled with almond cream/custard is a popular classic. In the recent years, many variations have appeared.

I followed (roughly) the recipe from the blog la cocina de Carolina with a sweet potato basis.

Here you see a coconut one that I found tempting, chez les deux gourmands. That was hard to make a choice, but I had most ingredients for the 1st one in my closet.

My galette contains 8 good surprises. The little monkey is la fève, the token. Fève means fava bean (broad bean) because the original simple version was simply a dry fava bean. Now there are beautiful decorated fèves.

>>>

The base is sweet potato. About a pound. I boiled big junks in the microwave, then mashed the flesh into a purée to which I added a good chunk of unsalted butter, an egg yolk, very little sugar.

Kumquats, marrons glacés, chips of black chocolate (100%).

White chocolate, sliced almonds, dry cranberries.

I peeled the kumquat and cut the skin in julienne.

The cranberries are rehydrated in kirsch (cherry liquor). I added them to the potato purée, as well as the other ingredients.

The paste is used to fill 2 circles of home-made feuilletage pie dough.

After being baked (about 40 minutes at 180 degree Celsius) :

No better photos of the whole pie. I took to the place of friends where it was reheated, served hot.

Of course, the little guy is hidden somewhere inside…