After creamy richness of the Buche de Noel comes the almond butteriness of the Galette des Rois, one of my favorite pastries of all time (okay the list is long) . As a kid growing up in Paris part of the fun was hiding under the table while the adults sliced the cake/tart and pronounce which slice was assigned to whom. Tucked into one of the slices hid the precious fève or trinket, as Wikipedia refers to it, which would determine who would be the king or queen of the day and don the golden paper crown (imagine a Burger King crown without the logo).

So two years ago I made my first and last galette from scratch, puff pastry and all, pictured below in its raw and finished form in my little Marseille flat.

It was definitely far from perfect but I was very satisfied with the result nonetheless. Puff pastry always had a mysterious aura for me, as something only expertly trained hands could achieve. It turns out that a little patience and practice and a lot of butter was all that was required to achieve flaky perfection. I was shocked to discover that in the South of France, people prefer the Couronne des Rois, which is basically a donught-shaped brioche covered with sugar and candied fruits and flavored with orange-water.

I was equally surprised to find out that in Geneva, they have the same type of cake, albeit without the candied fruit. This has divided my houselhold into to factions, with only one high-calorie solution... to get one of each.

Here's a recipe for the galette which I found on the ever-reliable Epicurious.com, let me know if you try it and how it turns out!