Galette des rois à la frangipane

Ingredients

💗Crème patissière

• 80g milk

• 6g sugar

• 6g cornstarch (use regular flour if you don't have any)

• 2 eggs yolks

• vanilla (not mandatory)

💗 Almond cream / Frangipane

• 120g softened butter at room temperature

• 120g ground almond (I tested it with a supermarket one first and it was good enough)

• 55g sugar

• 55g honey (it was a quite liquid acacia honey from my region but any will do)

• 40g ground walnuts from my garden (would work with hazelnut, you can even add a bit of ground pistacchios, you can add orange zests, wathever your inspiration is)

• 2 beaten eggs at room temperature

• 1 mocha spoon (= 1/2 teaspoon) of rum

• 1 mocha spoon (= 1/2 teaspoon) vanilla extract / orange blossom

• 1 pinch salt

💗Pastry

• 2 puff pastries

Directions

💗Crème patissière

1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with sugar then stir in the flour and cornstarch

2. In a saucepan, gently bring the milk to simmer (make sure to not make it boil!!)

3. Pour the hot milk over the previous mixture, mix it and bring it back into the saucepan (maybe it's simplier to add the mixture directly to the milk but I think it's riskier)

4. Return to low heat, whisk constantly until you obtain a dense, smooth creamy texture

5. Film the cream (make sure to apply the film directly in contact to the cream in the bowl) and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours.

💗 Almond cream / Frangipane

1. Soften the butter and mix in the sugar and whisk

2. Mix in ground almonds and walnuts, 1 pinch salt

3. Add the beaten eggs

4. Add the honey and whisk until it's well blended

5. Add 1 mocha spoon vanilla extract and/or orange blossom

6. Add 1 mocha spoon rum and mix gently, be careful not to overmix as it can happens easily with alcohol

7. Refrigerate for a few hours

💗Assembly

1. Whisk the crême pâtissière until smooth

2. Add it to the almond cream and mix very gently (pics 1A and 1B).

3. Place a pie or cake ring on a sheet pan or baking dish with a cling film on the bottom, spoon the mixture in it. The goal is to have a perfect disk shape (pic 2).

4. Cover the top with cling film and set aside in the freezer

5. Once hardened, remove the film and place the disk on top of the first puff pastry (pic 3).

6. Moisten the bottom pastry edges (important!) to make the two pastries stick together. Place the second one on top, centered, seal the two using your thumbs to gently press out the air (!!do not press too hard!!) and make small notches/cuts all around with the back of a knife - a technique called "chiqueter" (pic 4, not mine).

7. Brush the top pastry with egg wash and refrigerate for at least 1h (longer is even better).

8. Brush a second time, prick the pastry (make holes big enough to prevent egg wash to clogging them) and gently scratch the pastry to draw shapes with the back of a knife. (I was uninspired as I was tired but you can find really pretty things) (pic 5).

9. Place the galette on a sheet of parchment paper and bake at 175°C for 35 to 40 minutes in a preheat oven. Please keep a close eye on it after 25min, as some oven work better than over, cooking times can vary. During baking, if the galette puffs up too dramatically, you may want to poke it once or twice again to release the steam