Where's the second verdict, dammit?

Well, I told you to stay tuned... Unfortunately, there was a slight fridge-related mishap. A mysterious (read: we never worked out where it came from) leak happened in the fridge, soaking the galette. Seeing as we had no idea what the leak was, I didn't exactly want to eat it. Alas, the rest of the galette went in the bin; which was a real pity, because it was pretty darned good. Not quite perfect, but really rather good. Oh well, I'll have to try again sometime!

Verdict part 1: Galette des rois

While it's still warm straight from the oven, here are my thoughts. As expected, the puff pastry didn't quite puff up fully - but it definitely started to puff up. Better than I'd expected, and not too far off what I remember the pastry on the ones in bakeries in Paris being like. The frangipane doesn't seem sweet enough to me; I expect frangipane to be ludicrously sweet, like marzipan levels of sweetness, but this is much tamer in that respect. That might not be a bad thing, depending on your personal preference though. It's gorgeously rich, but there's something just not quite right about it. I can't quite put my finger on it and it's so close to the galettes I've had in France, but just not quite there. I think it'll be even better cold, so stay tuned for part 2 once it's cooled down. It's pretty darned good as it is though!

The cake of kings

I found myself rather unexpectedly free this weekend, so I thought I'd seize the opportunity to bake something! I settled on trying to bake a Galette des Rois; it's one of my favourite pastries, a frangipane-filled, puff pastry concoction. And naturally, I'm not wussing out and using pre-made pastry! The pastry recipe is taken from the Good Book (that's Leith's Cookery Bible, for any of you non-believers who might not be familiar with the book that guides us). The frangipane filling and the rest of the recipe is basically cribbed from this one.

Galette des Rois
Ingredients
For the pastry

• 200g Plain flour
• 170g Butter
• ~125ml Cold water

For the filling

• 100g Butter
• 100g Caster sugar
• 100g Ground almonds
• 3 Eggs
• 1tbsp Dark rum
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1tbsp Milk

Method
Make the pastry

1. Rub 30g of butter into the plain flour.
2. Stir in enough cold water with a knife to form a dough.
3. Knead until just smooth.
4. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for ~30 mins.
5. Roll the dough into a rectangle ~30x10cm.
6. Tap the remaining 140g butter into a rectangle ~9x8cm and place in the centre of the dough.
7. Fold the dough over on both sides to enclose the butter, pressing the sides to seal it.
8. Turn the dough through 90 degrees and roll out quickly and lightly until it is three times longer than it is wide.
9. Fold it into thirds and rotate again.
10. Roll out and fold into thirds again.
11. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for ~30 mins.
12. Repeat the rolling and folding (2 rolls and 2 folds), then wrap and refrigerate for ~30 mins.
13. Repeat step 12 (totalling three sets of two turns).
14. Refrigerate.

Make the filling

1. Cream the butter, almonds and sugar together.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Mix in the rum.

Assemble the pastry

1. Divide the pastry into two equal parts.
2. Roll each part into a circle ~25cm in diameter.
3. Place one circle on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.
4. Spoon the almond cream onto the pastry circle, leaving ~5cm around the outer edge uncovered.
5. Beat the egg yolk and milk together to make an egg wash. Brush the edge of the circle with the egg wash.
6. Place the other pastry circle on top and seal firmly around the edge.
7. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
8. Brush with the egg wash.
   
9. Score a pattern in the top with the tip of a sharp, non-serrated knife.
   
10. Bake at 180C for ~40 mins until golden.

You're supposed also to brush it with a sugar syrup while it's still hot from the oven, but I can't be bothered!

Here's the dough after kneading (end of step 3). Looks like dough (so far, so good!).The frangipane cream reading for filling.The assembled galette - I accidentally brushed the top with the egg wash before fridging it. In hindsight, maybe it would have been better to do this just before it went into the oven, but I don't think it'd make too much difference. I was a bit crap at rolling out the puff pastry early on and kept tearing the dough, so I'm not sure how well it'll puff up in the oven. We'll find out!Here's what it looks like straight out of the oven. The top seems to have shifted in the oven, but otherwise it looks pretty good!

Truffles again...

I've been saying that I'd make Trisha some truffles for a while now. I'm seeing her tomorrow evening, so it seemed like as good as time as any! It's the same procedure as usual - this time, the ingredients list is 200g dark chocolate (48% cocoa), 150ml double cream and 1tsp vanilla extract, plus 100g extra dark chocolate (85% cocoa) for the coating.