Best wishes for 2011

Hi dear readers, and welcome to the year 2011 (of the cute bunny) that should hopefully be more peaceful than year 2010 (of the tiger).

As some people might know, my hobbies include (a lot of) cooking so it is with a recipe that I am going to kick off the new year. All ingredients can be bought here in Japan, so you can probably cook this one almost everywhere in the world.


First, the ingredients :

. 2 pie sheets
. 100g sugar
. 100g almond powder
. 50g butter
. 2 eggs
. Rum or any other flavor (e.g. vanilla essence)

Preparation :

. Place butter, sugar, almond powder and eggs in a bowl (in that order)
. Mix slowly (especially if using an electric appliance)
. When the dry ingredients start getting wet, add flavor and mix faster (to obtain an emulsion)
. This emulsion is the almond cream

. Cut two round shapes from the pie sheets, one being bigger than the other
. The small diameter disk is the bottom of the pie, the large one will be the lid
. Wet the outer part of the small disk (so that the lid will stick when you lay it on top)
. Spread the almond cream in the center
. Insert a bean or anything hard that can withstand oven temperature
. Lay the larger disk on top and weld it on the small disk around the cream so that it doesn't leak (you can use a round cake mold for example to do that)
. "Flute" the edges, by pushing with your finger and chipping with the point of a knife, repeat this all around the disk
. Drill a small hole a the center so that vapor can leave the pie without making the whole thing burst
. Beat another egg and spread it on the pie, then do some fancy drawings with the point of your knife
. Let it dry then spread the beaten egg again
. Bake at 200C for 10 mins, then at 170C for 20 mins

You're done, enjoy.

Small cultural note : this pie is called "La galette des rois" and is connected to the christian celebration of "Epiphany", somewhat related to the persons who visited baby Jesus to bring him presents.

In our family, this pie is just linked to January 6th and a good way to stuff our stomach !