05/01/2018
Pastry of Kings, a culinary alternative to the Kings sponge cake
Just like every year, we finish the Christmas holidays in style, and in these dates, surprising everyone in the kitchen makes you a perfect host; although choosing a Christmas dessert is not easy, so we make it much easier for you with a recipe from Jean Marc Sanz, chef of the Montíboli Hotel, so you can offer an authentic alternative to the traditional roscón de reyes (3 Kings sponge).
Actually, the idea is very similar. It is the traditional dessert par excellence for the Kings day (epiphany) in France. In fact, the pastry of kings, popularly known as the galette des rois, or pastry of kings, has a fun ritual.
The game consists of having a child under the table, then they have to decide who will be the next adult to take their pastry portion.
As in the case of the roscón (cake) of Spanish kings, inside the pastry there are gifts (figurines), Including the dreaded hard haricot bean. In fact, the person in charge of paying for the cake of the 3 kings is always the adult that finds the bean in their portion of cake.
A fun tradition, without a doubt, and therefore, we encourage you to play the kings pastry game, this year as if it were the 3 kings Christmas sponge (roscón de los Reyes de Navidad).
Ingredients for the Pastry of Kings
In the case of a pastry of the 3 kings for eight people, the ingredients you will need are the following:
- 2 sheets of puff pastry
- 100 grams of butter
- 125 grams ground almonds
- 30 grams of flaked almonds
- 125 grams of sugar
- 3 eggs (1 to glaze the pastry)
Shall we start?
- First you will have to mix the butter with the sugar and the ground almond to make the filling for the Pastry.Some people prefer to add 50 grams of pastry cream flavoured with some rum (frangipane).
- Beat the two eggs well and then add them correctly to the mixture (pastry filling). Then add a handful of flaked almonds.
- Then you will need to assemble the pastry, take the first sheet of the puff pastry, and place it inside the dish making sure to moisten the edges correctly.
- In the center of the puff pastry base, you then put the almond cream filling, spreading it correctly over the entire surface and adding the figurines and the bean, to finally cover with the second puff pastry layer (leave approximately a 3cm overlap).
- It is necessary to press the edges well to be able to correctly unify the two parts of the puff pastry.
- Next, mark the puff pastry with a fork or a sprig. This is usually drawn on the surface of the pastry, either squares, spirals or just some scratches can be scored for decoration.
- Now beat the remaining egg. Then lightly brush the egg over the pastry to give is that special shine.
- With a fork or knife puncture the dough in several places, especially in the centre, so that a chimney effect is created and the steam inside the pastry evaporates.
- Finally, now all that is left is to cook the pastry in the oven for about 25 minutes, at a temperature between 180 and 200 degrees. Then leave to cool.
You now have your king’s pastry ready. Now is time to serve and start playing. We hope that you don’t get the hard haricot bean, and that your first pastry of kings will surprise your guests.
Happy 3 Kings day… we hope they bring you many gifts!
