Frangipane for the Befana

After all the food orgies for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and  New Year’s Eve if you can make it to January 6th, the sort of official end of the holiday feasting, you win! I am celebrating with an Italian-French Frangipane cake. The Epiphany is the religious holiday, celebrating the arrival of the three Magi with their gifts for Baby Jesus. What is celebrated more in Europe is the Befana, the gift bearing old woman. If they are good, the receive candy and small gifts, if they are bad,…. COAL! OK, the coal is also candy, but you get the idea. Perhaps that is where the saying “Rocks in your Socks” comes from? For years, Italian children would receive their gifts from the Befana, not Santa. Today they receive their gifts on Christmas and still get their stockings on January 6th.

I began my culinary life as a pastry chef in San Francisco. One of the first things I learned to make was a Pitivier, the other name for this cake. Making puff pastry is a true skill, but don’t let that stop you. You can buy puff pastry ready to bake. This year I decided to reach back into my French pastry roots and recreate a classic dessert, the Galette des Rois, the cake of the kings. Using premade puff pastry and an almond cream for the filling. Like most French recipes, Italians always have a story which relates back to Catherine de’ Medici, bringing recipes to France when she married Henry ll. Frangipane is a simple almond cream that is made and simply spread inside the puff pastry and baked. You hide a small ceramic “feve” inside and whoever finds it is the “King” for the day. If you do hide the small ceramic figure, do tell people! You can also simply use a whole almond to play it safe. Originally, it was a small fava bean., hence the name. I am crazy about collecting the ceramic “feve” and have several from my trips to France. They have the most wonderful images. I have several baby jesus ones I got on Etsy from my friend in France. I have several others as well from past trips, but they are packed away right now.

 

It doesn’t really matter to me where the recipe came from, but I adore all the different versions of desserts which are similar.

The Italian version uses a Pasta Frolla pie crust and often has a jam base, like the British Bakewell Tart.

I wanted to share a simple version of the Galette des Rois, made with grocery store puff pastry as it is a wonderful quick dessert for a party without panicking.

We can buy round puff pastry already to bake. The one I bought was a little larger than the suggested 23cm/10 inch size, so my filling looks thinner. But I didn’t want to trim off any of the dough.

First make the filling, cream the butter and sugar and then add the ground almond flour ( which I also bought ground).

Beat in the eggs and add your flavoring. I use bitter almond extract. Some people also add rum.

Refrigerate the cream while you prepare the puff pastry.

 

Once you are ready, lay one of the round puff pastry doughs on the baking sheet.

Spread the almond frangipane on top, leaving a border free to close the cake. Brush that border with water or a beaten egg.

Top with the other disk of puff pastry and press together.

Refrigerate before baking.

Brush the top with beaten egg and with the tip of a knife, “scratch” in designs on the top. I also put a tiny hole in the center to let air escape.

 

I prefer to serve it chilled. It is not too sweet a perfect dessert. If I had cut the dough to size, there would have been a higher layer of filling.

Tomorrow I am going to make the Italian Frangipane crostata with a thin layer of jam as well inside.

 

These are some of the little French feve which I bought at the flea market in Nice. Y0u only need one per tart. But they are so sweet.

There are entire collections of cartoon figures as well as classic figures.