If frangipane be the food of love, play on

Oh gosh. Do you see what I did there? Sorry, I won’t try that again.

But whether you call it an epiphany, a discovery, or a revelation, I was on to something. ?This stuff is Italian!? I insisted again and again. No, no, no, my friends told me. The galette is naturally a very French tradition. This is what we eat on the Epiphany. This is ours, the buttery pastry, the sweet almond filling, and even the little bean hidden inside. How could you think otherwise?

The subtext was of course ?silly american?. Silly as I might have been, the taste of frangipane, the creamy, almond center of the galette (and whose name?frangere il pane?belies its origin) brought back memories of my childhood?weddings, baptisms, funerals, Christmas Eve, even our strange Italian American bastard Fourth of July (polenta and hot dogs anyone?). I stood my ground. You can call it what you like, I said, but this cake is Napoleon, a smooth little Italian wrapped in layers and layers of French puff.

Of course, frangipane isn?t solely Italian, but nor is the galette des rois unique to France. It is eaten in Spain, Mexico, Greece, Bulgaria, New Orleans, and elsewhere. Traditionally, the galette is served on the Epiphany (also known as King’s Day or the Twelfth Night) but really, it?s so good that it?s considered fair game throughout January. I don?t know anyone who makes galette themselves; most families buy them from pastry shops and apparently they can get quite fancy. In particular, the bean hidden in the center–whoever finds it becomes king for the day–is a subject of infinite creativity for the best Parisian patissiers. Being far-removed from the best Parisian patissiers, I didn?t have that option. Instead, I did some creative (desperate) grocery shopping, and then some artful (panicked) improvising?to create?a galette less a la francaise than a l?americaine, but easy to make at home and not bad on the taste front.

Galette des rois, or King’s Cake:

Package of frozen puff pastry

1/2 cup almond paste

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3 tablespoons flour

Sauce (or where improvisation rears its ugly head):

Cream (in my ideal world. but we only had half and half in the fridge)

Almond paste

Ground walnuts

Frangelico

White sugar

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cook the sugar and butter over low heat and slowly added the almond paste, cut into little pieces. Stir until smooth, then add one of the eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract and finally flour.

2. Roll out puff pastry, and trace a circle with a round pan facedown (about 10 inch diameter). Place on a buttered baking sheet. Trace another circle and put it to the side.

3. Here’s the fun part! Spread the filling on the dough, starting in the center of the pan. Mix in the bean (or whatever floats your boat, just be sanitary) Make sure it’s evenly distributed, then place the second circle of dough on top. Press on the edges of the top and bottom dough to seal in the interior.

4. Beat an egg with a spoon and glaze the top. Cut some on top and put in the oven for 30 minutes.

5. If you want to add a sauce, go ahead, but this is just pure folly on my part. I was afraid I hadn’t made enough filling (I admit, I much prefer the custard to the pastry) and started playing with some leftover ingredients. I ended up bringing the cream, frangelico (Italian sabotage???) and sugar to a boil, and then mixing in the walnuts and almond paste. It tastes really good, but I’m not sure how it will play out with the consistency of the galette, which isn’t traditionally served with a sauce.

If you want to try this yourself, I would recommend supplementing/replacing my recipe (a product of sloppy kitchen play) with something more exact.  O Delices has a good recipe for those of you who read French. Or email me, and I’ll send you an English translation.

One last thing: I’m eating this tomorrow with my aunt and cousins. Whose last name is King! You see how I didn’t mention that? Pun resistance!