Galette de Rois: Two Ways

Happy New Year! Have you already taken down your Christmas decorations? Or do you leave your's up for Epiphany? We are splitting the difference this year. This last Christmas, we put up our decorations in stages and it's sort of how we are taking them down this year, as well. We'll leave up the tree for Epiphany, but everything else is in the process of being packed up. (Sadly my parent's nativity didn't even make it out this year. Maybe I'll set it up at least for Epiphany?)

This year we are hosting friends for a Sunday brunch and I'm hoping to make these delicious Galette de Rois (or King's Cakes) for us to serve. My first experience eating a Galette de Rois was when I was a student in Paris and my roommates and I bought a King's Cake to join in on the festivities. It came with a paper crown and a little instruction sheet. If you're not familiar, according to tradition, it took the wise men 12 days of travel to reach the baby Jesus. Epiphany is the celebration of the day when they arrived bearing gifts. (I learned that Twelfth Night is actually the Eve of their arrival and apparently in Medieval Times was quite a rowdy celebration, hence Shakespeare's play by the same name). 

To mark the day in many countries there is a tradition of the King's cake, which has a hidden charm (often of the baby Jesus) baked inside. In France, while the cake is being cut, one child hides under the dinner table and calls out the names of who receives each slice. Once it is eaten, the child who finds the token is proclaimed the King for the day and gets to lord over the others. When the cake is purchased at the bakery, it usually comes with a paper crown. The traditional Galette de Rois is a flaky pastry filled with an almond custard or frangipane. 

Since those student days in Paris I have on occasion bought King's cakes for nostalgia's sake, but usually these have been the Latin version "Rosca de Reyes" (King's Ring) which is quite different in appearance and flavor from what I had remembered from France. So, a few years back, I thought it would be fun to try to make my own. I found two different recipes and tried them both. One was a traditional version taken from David Leibovitz' website and as you can expect, it was quite delicious. The second  came from a YouTuber channel for "Alex, French Guy Cooking"  and his version used filo dough and had a Moroccan flavor profile. They both were tasty, and very different in texture and flavor. Everyone in our family had their favorite. Personally I preferred David Leibovitz' version. 

Back then, I intended to make them and share my findings in a post, but at the time we were so busy that the cakes didn't get made till after the holiday. Then in subsequent years I simply lost track of the photos. Today I came across them and thought it was a perfect timing to share. If you get a chance, you could prepare the cakes on Twelfth Night and serve them on Epiphany, just like I'll be doing. Let me know which one you prefer. (Scroll down to see 20 year old me and some silly documentation of our Parisian Galette de Rois).