At the bakery today, the choices were difficult. Epiphany is upon us, and it's time for the traditional galette des rois, or "kings' cake" of France and Quebec: made of puffed pastry with almond cream inside. They're always sold with a crown on top, and a little favor is hidden inside: the person who finds it wears the crown. The favor used to be a broad bean, but now the bean has been replaced by little figurines - in Louisiana, they are plastic babies said to represent Jesus.
Since there were only two of us, a whole cake seemed like a great over-indulgence.
There were, of course, smaller cakes and confections, each one more tempting than the last: those fruit tartes looked absolutely fantastic.
And above the array of Napoleons, how about these square pots of three chocolate mousses in layers, crowned with kingly triangles?
But reason prevailed, and we came home with just one treat: an etoile aux pommes, a star filled with apples, which seemed perfect for the day, and perfect for Quebec. You'll see more of why I thought that, tomorrow.
In one of our favourite bakeries, you could buy a single slice of galette des rois, and every slice contained a fêve! We used to indulge, and I still have a few around, mostly little Maries and Josephs, my favourite one though, which I keep in one of my pockets as a kind of talisman, was a little pottery miniature galette des rois! This struck me as rather charmingly post-modern in a patisserie kind of way, a mise en abyme of galettes des rois!
Your apple star looks very nice. I'd not heard of those millefeuille things called Napoleons.
Posted by: Lucy | January 05, 2014 at 04:42 PM