Bistrot Victoires - la couronne

Bistrot Victoires

The tall tiered pedestal on the bar of Bistrot Victoires displayed a gold paper crown, 

the regal spoils for the "king" who found the fève in a galette des rois.

I wonder what they did with the fève?

Yes, I am an obsessed collector

Bistrot Victoires

6, rue la Vrillière

75001, Paris

Galette des Rois - fait à la maison

In previous posts, I have talked of galette des rois with photos of the beautiful cakes found in the Paris pâtisseries and I promised to give you an authentic French recipe.  Clotilde Dusoulier is a talented Parisian with a passion for food, an author who started as a blogger (Chocolate & Zucchini).  She is now a full-time food writer with recipes that are authentic and easy to follow, all with detailed instructions.  Here is the link to her Homemade Galette des Rois.

Now, what you see above is not the feuilletage inversé (inverted puff pastry) but an 'acceptable' purchased puff pastry.  If you live in Paris you can buy a slab of puff pastry from G Detou made with the perfect French butter.  Many recipes call for a frangipane filling, but I prefer the crème d'amande which we made using Clotilde's recipe and a scale (carefully weighing the ingredients).  It is divine, and the fève was not forgotten.

If you do not have the luxury of a French bakery just around the corner, you can satisfy your taste buds with a galettes des rois from your own kitchen.  

(You do not even want to know what is called a "King's Cake" in my area of the USA)

bon appetit

"chat avion"

Joining Dreaming of France weekly meme

MORA - des fèves

The Window of MORA

(Le Spécialiste des Ustensiles de Cuisine)

MORA is one of my regular stops in Paris, to buy a French cookbook, 

powdered colors for making macarons, moule cannelé (for making Canelés de Bordeaux), and fèves.  There are many themes for a collection of fèves and we really wanted the row with the bees (including the Queen bee on the left).  They did not have any left for sale but there were other charming selections as you can see.  Perhaps you would be interested in the row of purses?

I promised a recipe for the galette des rois and have included a link here 

for a very easy galette.  

However, I will be back later with a photo of my galette des rois,

and a French recipe which I prefer.

(Joyeux anniversaire, Marie!)

MORA, au service de la Gastronomie depuis 1814

13, rue Montmartre

75001, Paris

Métro Étienne Marcel

Fèves pour la Galette des Rois

I am ready for Epiphany and the Galette des Rois.

I do not think that I will be able to get all of my fèves into just one gallette!

I have collected fèves for years and was fortunate enough to meet a parisienne who was selling her husband's 40-year collection.  I promised to cherish them as he did. 

I will be looking for new ones next week to add to the collection.

Gâteau d'anniversaire

The imperfect gâteau, ready for the day...

I will be taking care of the treasured fêves which adorn the top layer, bien sûr

(Note the story from last year)

Lagnaippe -- a story

I have never posted twice in the same day but this is a story which does relate to Epiphany, la galette des rois, and fèves. Do you remember the cake from Christmas Day with the petite manger scene on top (fèves anciens)? Here are photos of the characters and the original cake...

The Story:

Sunday when I was taking down all of Christmas and cleaning and throwing, etc., I got ready to toss the rest of the Jesus' Birthday cake and was missing a few pieces. Joseph had run away on the camel and left Mary, the angel and the little baby Jesus!!!! I asked DH about them, what did he do with the top of the cake that night he had some in the kitchen. He could not remember. Probably, he either threw it in the trash or down the disposal. I thought about it and figured that I would consider going through the garbage although I could not be sure which day all that cake eating had transpired...

Fortunately there was only one white garbage bag in the big trashcan... So, I sat down on the ground in the driveway and started moving the garbage to another fresh bag. I found...

• coffee filters with grounds x 2
• two pieces of mutilated pomegranate with lots of loose pomegranate seeds mixed in with the coffee grounds (yum)
• two diapers (fortunately no poop)
• the remains of whatever Mexican thing Son-in-Law ate
• the rinds of stinky cheese, French bien sûr
• lots of beer bottles (recycling?)
• two Champagne corks and wire
• lots of gooey cake and icing
• the stems from asparagus
• half-empty yogurt bottles
• empty orange juice carton
• wet newspapers and paper products
• Joseph and the camel! And they had taken the cow with them too!!!

Yay, me! I rescued all three although the camel will need a head re-attachment!

Moral to this story: If you are making pastries with treasured old fèves, do not leave them in/on the pastry beyond the presentation.

Footnote: Although I did not name the son-in-law, I have already shown his socks and underwear in an early post on my blog, so I am not sure that anonymity matters.