Chocolate Galette Des Rois

Happy New Year! Are we too far into January for me to write that? Oh well, it’s done now. My aim this year is to spend a bit more time on Patisserie Makes Perfect and to try to post more than one recipe a month.

My first recipe is a chocolate galette des rois which is traditionally served on epiphany (6th January), I made the galette in plenty of time, but editing the photos and getting the recipe typed up meant I missed epiphany. So you can make this galette next year, or you can make it just because it tastes great and I don’t think that chocolate frangipane and puff pastry should be limited to one day of the year.

If you don’t know the history of the galette des rois or king cake, it is a French pastry that is said to draw the kings (three wise men) to the epiphany. The cake normally has a feve which was a broad bean inside it and the person who has the piece of galette with the feve gets to wear the crown and is a king for the day.

I’ll be honest I didn’t bother with the feve, or the crown. I wanted to make the chocolate galette des rois because it tastes so delicious. I have made galette des rois a few times, but I saw a recipe online for a chocolate version and I had to try it. King’s Fine Foods had kindly sent me some Amedei chocolate, some of their 90% cocoa chocolate and some of their No.9 range which is 75% cocoa. I used a blend of the two to create this, so it isn’t too sweet, but not too bitter either.

My plan to stay on track with the blog, harks back to what I used to do when I started this 5 years ago. I planned my recipes out a few weeks in advance and broke them down into individual parts that I could make over a few evenings before assembling the final product. I did this for the galette and it worked perfectly, so lets hope I can maintain this focus well into 2019.

Chocolate Galette Des Rois

Patisserie Makes Perfect

This puff pastry recipe is adapted from William Curley's book patisserie.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 4 hours hrs

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 4 hours hrs 45 minutes mins

Servings 8 -10

Ingredients

  

• ***Beurrage***
• 225 g Unsalted Butter softened
• ***Puff Pastry***
• 125 g Plain Flour
• 125 g Strong White Bread Flour
• 5 g Table Salt
• 25 g Unsalted Butter cubed and fridge cold
• 100 ml Cold Water
• 1 egg yolk for glazing
• ***Filling***
• 65 g Amedei Dark Chocolate 90% Cocoa
• 35 g Amedei No.9 Dark Chocolate 75% Cocoa
• 50 g Unsalted Butter softened
• 100 g Caster Sugar
• 1 Egg + 1 Yolk
• 100 g Ground Almonds
• 1 Tbsp Dark Rum

Instructions

 

• Take a sheet of greaseproof paper and draw a 10cm x 10cm square on it, turn the square over and place the 225g butter in the middle of it. Using a stepped palette knife spread the butter into an even layer so that it fills the square.
• Use the knife to neaten the edges and corners, wrap the square up in the greaseproof paper and then wrap in cling-film and place it in the fridge to firm up.
• Place the 25g of butter, both types of flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on a low speed until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add the water and mix again until it starts to form a dough.
• Tip the dough onto a surface that is clean and knead it until it all comes together and begins to look smooth and a bit elastic.
• Shape the dough into a ball and cut a cross in the top of it. Wrap the dough in cling-film and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.
• Take the dough out of the fridge and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough from each cut edge until it looks like a diamond that will be big enough to encase the butter block (beurrage).
• Place the butter block on the pastry and pull up the triangles to encase the dough like an envelope.
• Press the dough together with your fingers so that the butter is completely encased.
• Roll the pastry out into a rectangle that is three times as long as the width. Fold the top third of the dough over, using a pastry brush, brush off any excess flour and then fold the bottom third up to cover the top third, again brushing off any excess flour.
• Turn the dough 90 degrees so that the folded edge is on the left or right now.
• Roll the dough out again to a size that is three times as long as the width and then fold the top third of the dough over, using a pastry brush remove any excess flour.
• Fold the bottom third of the dough over the top and again brush off any excess flour.
• Wrap the dough in cling-film and place in a Zip lock bag to stop any moisture getting to the pastry and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.
• After an hour take the pastry out of the fridge and repeat the last four steps twice more, this will mean you have completed 6 turns in 3 batches.
• Place the dough in the fridge to chill for another hour.
• When the dough is chilled, cut it into two blocks one that is a third in size and one that is two thirds.
• Take the larger block of pastry and place it back in the fridge. Roll out the smaller piece of pastry on a floured surface and cut out a circle that is 22cm in diameter. Place this round of pastry back in the fridge on a piece of greaseproof paper.
• Take the larger block of pastry and roll it out on a floured surface, cut out a circle that is 24cm in diameter.
• Place this round of pastry back in the fridge on a piece of greaseproof paper.
• Next make the filling, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and then place to one side.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together.
• Add the egg and the egg yolk and beat until combined, then add the ground almonds and mix until combined.
• Then using a spatula scrape in the melted chocolate and add the dark rum, gently stir it into the frangipane mixture. When it is all combined, place the chocolate frangipane in a disposable piping back and place to one side.
• Preheat the oven to 160C Fan/180C and place the smaller circle of pastry on a baking tray with the greaseproof paper still underneath. Pipe a spiral of the chocolate frangipane onto the ring of dough, leaving 2cm from the edge of the pastry. If you don’t use all the frangipane, just pipe it on top starting from the middle, you want an almost dome like shape.
• Take the egg wash and using a brush, spread it around the exposed edge of the bottom piece of pastry.
• Take the larger ring of pastry out of the fridge and place it gently over the bottom half of the galette des rois. Press the edges together and crimp them so that the galette will not come apart when cooking.
• Brush the galette with the rest of the egg wash and place it back in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• Take the galette out of the fridge and then using a small sharp knife score any pattern you want into the top of the galette, be careful not to cut all the way through the pastry, you don’t want any filling to spill out.
• Place the galette in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes until it is golden.
• Remove the galette from the oven and leave to firm up on the tray for 30 mins before transferring to a wire rack and leaving to cool.
• This keeps well, but does taste best on the day of baking.

Just in case things go awry (as they have a tendency to do in real life), let me know in the comments if you have any recipes you’d like me to make, or any tips on how I can stay on top of my planning. If all else fails, there’ll always be gin and chocolate.

Thanks for reading.

Angela