Ómós Digest #77: Galette des Rois or ‘King Cake’.
By Cissy Difford.
Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to the Ómós Digest. It’s our 3rd year of writing and we are so happy to be here with you!
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This newsletter brings you on that journey about the food you were looking for, or perhaps never knew existed. It is our quest to expand on what we don’t know and to share with those who care.
The French novelist Gustave Flaubert once said, “Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory.” And as we rejoice in December’s glee, and look forward to the blissful unfolding of Spring, let’s take pause to celebrate Winter. A season typically stigmatised by frugality, but when you take a moment and look hard enough, it’s in fact dotted with hidden luxury.
Today, Pastry Chef extraordinaire Cissy Difford shares all you need to know about Galette Des Rois. It’s one of my all-time favorite French pastries traditional to this time of year. Lush almond frangipane encased in golden crisp puff pastry. It’s decadent, easy to make, and certainly worthy of an occasion. I have fond memories of my siblings and I, trotting down to the bakery in our little village in France to pick up a couple of baguettes and a Galette for Sunday lunch (we’d usually pick up a cream-filled beignet also, sharing it on the walk home before my mother noticed). Cúán.
Just to let you know our friends at Scéal Bakery will be selling individual Galette des Rois on Friday 13th at the Fumbally Stables in Dublin 8.
Galette Des Rois, by Cissy Difford.
After such a long month of overindulgence, you might think that when the New Year comes around, so do the diets and health cleanses. Well, think again, as technically speaking the Christmas period doesn’t officially end until Epiphany (the 6th January). On this day in France, the infamous Galette des Rois (King Cake) is served to celebrate this Twelfth Night. Inside this cake a ‘fève’ (bean), or nowadays a figurine, is hidden within and whoever finds it is named ‘le roi’ (the King) or ‘la reine’ (the Queen) for the day. In Northern France, this dessert is made by filling discs of puff pastry with a rich, buttery almond filling, similar to frangipane. Whereas in the south, the cake is a brioche style bread, shaped like a crown and covered in candied fruit.
Being such a distinct tradition, I thought I’d delve into its origins for a hot sec. Well, it seems to have stemmed from an ancient Roman pagan festival held in honour of the agricultural god Saturn. Occurring at the end of December and into early January, the winter festival of Saturnalia celebrated the promise of a successful spring harvest. Most importantly however, this celebration saw the relaxation and inversion of social norms. In particular, gambling was acceptable and slaves and masters were allowed to dine together, and even switched roles. During the festival feasts, a bean was concealed inside a cake (see it’s all coming together now!) and whoever found it was named Lord of Misrule and they were to lead the debauchery and drinking.
