Here is the bakers’ secret to knowing where the bean is in your galette des rois.
The new year has begun and the king cake season has come. This gourmet dessert, highly coveted for its soft frangipane and its golden, crispy puff pastry, also arouses a lot of enthusiasm for its bean, which, according to a superstition well anchored in popular culture, would bring luck all year round to those who eat it. find. Formerly represented in the form of a simple seed, it today takes the form of small porcelain figurines that some collectors are snapping up. Passionate Fabophile or not, know that there is a well-kept secret among bakers to find the precious sesame in your pancake.
It’s decided, this year you will be the king or queen of the day, proudly displaying your golden crown! No need to imagine that you will find the bean by scrupulously observing the slightest roughness of the pancake or by discreetly lifting the top of the puff pastry…
To force destiny, you will have to look beneath the galette des rois. If your cake was purchased in a bakery or pastry shop, it has a distinctive mark, whether in the form of a punch, circle or cross, which locates the location of the bean. We reassure you, this mark called the “pastry chef’s punch” was not invented to cheat, but to avoid falling on the bean when cutting! Small downside however, not all craftsmen practice this technique.
Generally, professionals place the bean on the outer edge, at a distance of 2 centimeters, where the circumference of the cake is greatest, to reduce the risk of falling on it when cutting. You will then have to be discreet in looking under your king cake. We’ll give you a trick: pretend to check that the dough is cooked when you lift the cake, all you’ll see is fire! To you abundance, prosperity, renewal and luck!