This French Three Kings cake – also called Galette des Rois – is far too grandiose to be enjoyed merely on January 06. Therefore, I allow myself the sacrilege to share the recipe for the vegan Galette des Rois still after Epiphany with you. What a blasphemy 🙀.
I’m sorry, because I’m sure you too won’t be able to resist the delicious almond flavored filling that definitely reminds you of amaretto. And when the royal frangipane – aka French almond cream – comes wrapped between two layers of puff pastry and all vegan it’s a real temptation!
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So someone should explain to me, who actually pronounced a ban on feasting after Epiphany. I call for rebellion! Who will join me?
Because honestly, the winter months after December are the worst, right? What are January and February for, anyway?
The winter sports enthusiasts among you, please just skip to the next paragraph, for you the months may still make sense. But really, if it were up to me, we could just hop right into March after December 31. January and February are just a long dry spell until the long-awaited spring finally arrives.
And you know what`s the worst part of all? After December, they want us to believe that all the soul food is also supposed to be mothballed along with the Christmas decorations until the next season.
I say NO! After all, how should we please get through these gray, cold and wet days without delicious food for the soul? Of course, our foodies may no longer spend hours in the kitchen for huge menus, as at Christmas time, but I will definitely not abandon my comfort food anytime soon. And that’s why today we have a Vegan Galette des Rois recipe. So forget about the healthy recipes.
And if you don’t like frangipane, you can alternatively try this Vegan Lemon Tart with Meringue. Or how about an Epiphany alternative the Epiphany cake based on brioche dough?
Who knows the history of the Galette des Rois?
Well, I definitely wasn’t one of them, but I always find the history or origin of dishes very fascinating. And thank God, today you can ask Auntie Wiki or the uncle with the big G and you will get an answer to almost everything.
So now a short digression on the history of the Galette des Rois. And before you close your eyes because you find history boring as hell. You are welcome to jump directly to the recipe. There’s also the link at the very beginning of each post for that. Really No Offense Taken. 😝
Back to the French Epiphany cake, whose origin is attributed to two different origins. One alone would be too simple for such an aristocratic pastry.
The one origin goes back to the Saturn week. A 7-day festival where children were given cakes. Back then, the little ones were still satisfied with pastries; today, it has to be the latest Playstation. The second origin – probably also the more popular one – goes back to the Epiphania festival. The so-called Feast of the Apparitions or the day when the three Kings came to the Child Jesus to deliver their gifts.
Today’s custom is mainly about crowning the king for the day. For this, a plastic king is hidden in the Galette des Rois or in its counterpart the Brioche Dough Three Kings Cake. The ecos among us take an almond or a piece of vegan chocolate. Whoever eats the piece with the king is crowned with a cardboard crown and is the king, or queen, for the whole day.
The typical feature of a traditional French Epiphany cake is the almond filling. This is usually prepared from blanched ground almonds. In my pantry, however, a can of white almond flour has been dormant for a while. And when I saw at Full of Plants that a vegan galette des rois can also be made with almond flour, I realized it’s time to awaken it for good.
Here’s the thing with almond flour. It is fat/oil free compared to ground almonds and also draws more liquid. So the same amount of liquid provides a drier consistency with almond flour than with ground almonds. However, you can of course also prepare this recipe with ground blanched almonds without any problems. However, in this case it is advisable to gradually add the amount of liquid specified in the recipe. The almond cream should have a slightly moist, but not liquid consistency. The filling should be creamy, but still compact.
It is also recommended to devour the vegan galette des rois promptly. Puff pastry is not known to get better with age. And the same goes for the filling. It becomes drier with every hour that passes and virtually sucks the life out of the filling like a vampire. What can we say, almond flour just likes it’s liquid. Therefore, it is best to bake fresh and consume immediately.
In the pictures you can also see that the filling is brown. That’s because I did a trial with coconut blossom sugar. A traditional galette des Rois has a light filling. Household sugar and blanched almonds are used. But who says you always have to follow guidelines. It also works with coconut blossom sugar – flavor will get a touch of caramel- and with unblanched almonds. Then the color of the filling is just brown.
In my opinion, it tastes better with table sugar. But as we all know, tastes are different.
Enjoy and Bon appétit!
Vegan Galette des Rois – French Three Kings Cake
Equipment
- 1 pie tin 30cm diameter round
- 1 kitchen machine with whisk optional, alternatively just a hand held whisk
- parchment paper
- 1 brush for basting/brushing
Ingredients
- 120 g margarine vegan
- 100 g table sugar*
- 1 package of vanilla sugar 8g each
- 200 g almond flour* white
- 40 g cornstarch
- 1 pinch of salt
- 6 drops of bitter almond flavor*
- 200-250 g plant based milk*
- 2 packages of puff pastry vegan, 320g each*, already rolled out
- 30 ml soy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200° Celsius.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the first package of puff pastry on the tray. Remove excess dough and use elsewhere (see notes). Prick bottom of galette several times with a fork. In the meantime, place the cake tray in the refrigerator.
- Place margarine, sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Using a food processor with whisk attachment, beat mixture until creamy. The mixture will take on a creamy consistency and slightly less yellow color. Alternatively, you can use a whisk.
- Add almond flour, starch, salt, and 2-3 drops of bitter almond flavoring.
- Now add 200g of vegetable milk and mix the mixture with a pastry spatula. If the filling is still not creamy enough, gradually add a little more plant milk. The amounts of liquid vary depending on the type of almond flour. The filling should be moist – creamy, but still compact and not runny or liquid.
- Taste filling and add more bitter almond flavoring drop by drop if necessary. Depending on how intense the flavor is preferred. I like it rather intense, but for some 2-3 drops may be enough.
- Spread filling on pie crust with a pastry spatula and smooth it out.
- Place second puff pastry on top of filling. Remove excess pastry and press edges of pastry well together with bottom pastry. So that the galette is tightly sealed.
- Using a sharp knife, score a spiral pattern on the top pastry. If you like, you can also choose a different pattern. Then, using a brush, brush the top of the dough with soy cream.
- Bake the galette for 20 minutes on the lowest rack of the oven so that the bottom is well baked and not mushy soft.
- After 20 minutes, move the galette to the second highest rack of the oven and bake again for about 20 minutes. The galette should be baked until golden brown on top, but not burnt.
