Today we celebrate epiphany!
So we are going to devour a epiphany cake.
As you may have read in the post on the « galette des rois », it is a tradition that no family can escape. In France, we take every opportunity to get together and enjoy a delicious meal or as is the case today a good pastry.
If you come to France on this occasion, you can easily buy them throughout the month of January in all bakeries / pastry shops.
But if you want to play the game all the way, you can also prepare it yourself. There are several recipes, some of which are really very easy.
Traditionally, real frangipane is a mixture of almond cream and pastry cream. But of course, you can get around the traditional recipe a little bit and forget about the pastry cream. Either way, it's very good!
You'll see !
What ingredients will you need?
2 puff pastry
140g ground almonds (4,9 ounce)
100g of sugar (3,5 ounce)
2 eggs
70g soft butter (2,5 ounce)
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon of bitter almond flavor
1 vanilla pod
50g pastry cream (only if you want to make the real frangipane) (1,8 ounce)
And a « lucky charm » of your choice (which can withstand the heat of the oven of course)
What is the traditional recipe?
To start, preheat your oven to 180g. It will be hot when you have finished preparing your epiphany cake.
Then it's time to start with the frangipane or the almond cream depending on what you choose to do.
So, first whisk the sugar and the soft butter, then gradually add the ground almonds. Then you will scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add them to the previous mixture. Then add 2 whole eggs and the teaspoon of bitter almond. You mix again and your almond cream is ready!
If you want to prepare the traditional recipe, add 50g (1,8 ounce) of pastry cream to your almond cream and again mix everything. This time your frangipane is ready!
Now is the time to start the technical part.
Take the baking sheet from your oven and cover it with a sheet of baking paper. Then place one of your puff pastry on the baking sheet. Place the almond cream or the frangipane (depending on what you have chosen to do) on top, leaving 2 to 3 cm (0,8 to 1,2 inches) of dough all around. You will then slightly wet the edges with water.
And then you cover with the second puff pastry and you will have to weld the edges by pressing well all around. Your frangipane should not escape during cooking.
And now the decoration work begins!
You will start by browning the top of your patty with the beaten egg yolk.
Take a knife and cut a small chimney at the top of your preparation so that the steam escapes during cooking. That way your puff pastry will be really crispy. Then draw patterns with the blade of your knife all over the top of your preparation. But be careful not to pierce the dough.
You just have to bake for about 40 minutes. Do not hesitate to take a look at your preparation every now and then to check the doneness.
And here you go!
You just have to taste it or if you want to please the children, ask the youngest to hide under the table and shout out the names of the beneficiaries. 😊
See you soon for another recipe !