Faux Pasta: A Sister Cooking Blog

Beautiful picture source: Griottes
Recipe: some French cider brand

I stumbled upon this beauty today via the Pantone Pastry post that’s making the rounds. It’s a Chocolate and Pistachio Galette des Rois, or French King cake. Traditionally it’s just an almond mixture in the middle of puff pastry. Paulina and I thought this was just about the best thing ever when we lived in France as little girls. I can’t remember if my mom made them herself, or if she bought one at the local bakery around Epiphany in January. The person who found a little porcelain figurine in their slice of galette became king for the day and got to wear a crown. More exciting than being king: collecting these tiny stupid porcelain people. Supposedly, the king had to furnish the next galette, but that wasn’t a hard and fast rule in our house. I love love love almond-flavored desserts, but pistachio and chocolate desserts are close favorites. I’ve translated the recipe here as much as my French will carry me, and I will certainly be attempting to make it. I am pretty sure the filling needs almond extract, but we’ll see.

Galette des rois Pistache et Chocolat

Ingredients for 1 galette, four servings

2 puff pastry sheets (cut in 7in-diameter circles)
50g of room temp butter (a little under half a stick — 1/4 cup)
50g of sugar (1/4 cup)
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
50g of finely ground almond meal (ABOUT 1/2 cup - Trader Joe’s sells this, or you can make your own as long as you use blanched almonds and make sure that it doesn’t turn into almond butter)
5g of flour (1 heaping teaspoon)
5g of rum (1 teaspoon)
15g pistachio paste (I think you can make your own by just basically pounding pistachios with a mortar & pestle, or using a mini food processor and adding a bit of sugar and almond extract) - 2-3 tablespoons
25g mini chocolate chips (3 tablespoons)
Simple syrup to brush on at the end of baking

Recipe
Beat the room temperature butter in a medium size bowl using a hand mixer or stand mixer, add the sugar and mix until the well-mixed. Add the room temperature egg, then the almond meal.

Now that the mixture is well incorporated, add the flour, rum, and pistachio paste, then mix again.

Place one of the puff pastry circles on a baking dish, and paint the outer edges with the egg yolk. Spread the pistachio mixture carefully, making sure not to go all the way to the edge so you can seal your galette. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Put the second puff pastry disk on top, and brush the top with the egg yolk. Using a sharp knife, cut yourself some sweet designs as shown here. Preheat your oven to 350F or 180C.  Bake for 25-30 minutes (it should be a dark golden). Once it’s out of the oven, use your clean pastry brush to brush a little simple syrup on top.

Let the galette cool, and serve with cider. Enjoy!

- Nellie