We got back from skiing last night and went to a Twelfth Night party. It was the first time we had a galette, the traditional French tart baked with a fève inside. Our hosts made their own, which is unusual. Basically, no one bakes in France. It's too easy to go to the local pâtissier.
The custom is for the youngest child present to go under the table and call out people's names as the galette is divided up. The person who is given the slice with the fève is then king or queen of the evening.
"C'est toujours moi qui a le fève," said Maxime, confidently, before he even stuck his fork into his slice. Sure enough, the fork hit something hard and he pulled out a little porcelain figure of the Mère Michel (a French nursery-rhyme figure who loses her cat. Tragically, the père Lustucru tells her he has sold the cat as rabbit meat. You can hear the song here). He did not put the crown on his head.
Bakeries compete with each other over the fèves, which were originally beans (fève means bean). A lot of people collect fèves, as you can see at French flea markets. I don't collect them but I don't throw them away. On the bottom of each fève I write the date and who won it. Over the years we have amassed a large collection of fèves that includes Astérix le Gaulois, the Virgin Mary, a crown that is also a ring (designed by Inès de la Fressange), and various figures of the Christmas crèche.
Not many Americans know this, but there is an old Epiphany tradition in Louisiana, too. A King Cake is baked with a "baby" inside. The person who finds it is then the King. Twelfth Night marks the beginning of the Mardi Gras season. In New Orleans, Christmas and Mardi Gras celebrations take all the time between Thanksgiving and Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent.
Twelfth Night also means it's time to take the Christmas tree down. So sad!
Funny to hear your view on galette. I am not certain that "nobody bakes" but that does seem to correlate with the outrageous prices boulangeries charge for my favorite pastry. My mother being culinarily inclined always makes her own (which is often better than store-bought). It's still a very popular holiday in France so that might account for the premium, but around €45 a pie (around Paris) it seems like robbery!
Posted by: Stéphane | 07 January 2007 at 23:49
The first time I saw a King's cake after I moved to Houston I was shocked by the bright purple and green icing. Now that I never see them in LA I miss them (though I never bought one!) I'm not fond of King's cake's too sweet taste and oversized day-old donut feel. But I still observe Twelfth Night and Epiphany and all the good times (especially that last crazy week) til Lent. Laissez les bon temps roulez!
Posted by: Erin | 08 January 2007 at 21:24
€45 a pie !!!
It's more than robbery !
Posted by: flip | 09 January 2007 at 18:41
Traditionaly Galette des rois was eaten in the North and Centre of France only.
In the south of France people did eat 'couronne des rois' which is a kind of hoop-shaped brioche flavoured with orange blossom water, and decorated with crystallized fruit and sugar drops. When I was a kid (I'm now 38) you could not find galette des rois in the south!
Then 20 years ago bakeries in the south of France began to sell galettes - yet in the north you still seldom find couronnes des rois
Galette des rois are very easy to cook (needs only 10 mins to prepare)and in my children's school many mums bring homemade galettes.Look at 'galette à la frangipane' in any cookbook, you'll find the recipe easily, and even kids can cook some very easily
http://www.takatrouver.net/recettes/index.php?r1=&a=&profil=recette&debut=350
Gateau des rois is much more difficult to bake (the brioche paste is very sticky and needs a lot of 'pétrissage' before you can manage to shape a hoop).
http://www.gustave.tv/recettes/474/gateau-rois.html
As for the 45 € Stephane paid, it is robbery indeed... This morning I bought 20 € in the best bakery of my town (Antony) a fantastic galette for 8/10 persons)
Posted by: nat | 10 January 2007 at 15:02
I have seen at tv this week that the frangipane galette des rois is made with a HUGE amount of butter (around 1 kg for a normal sized galette).
Like Maïté the cook godess could have not said (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C3%AFt%C3%A9
http://www.chezmaite.com/)
"Eat the galette, then start the diet" lol.
Posted by: flip | 10 January 2007 at 18:31