Rosca de Reyes and Galette des Rois

Holidays can be difficult for me since I am so far away from my family and many traditions that I miss. Although today is no longer a holiday in the US, it is a big day in many countries around the world. It is the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Epiphany.

On this day, we got to eat Rosca de Reyes, which is a brioche dough, that is shaped in a circle, topped with candied fruits and it comes with a surprise mini figurine inside. In our family, whoever got the slice of rosca with the figurine had to do the dishes for an entire day. It was a fun day that wrapped up the Christmas season.

A few years back, my French chef Sebastien introduced me to the “Galette Des Rois”, which is a traditional tart composed of puff pastry and frangipane also eaten on Epiphany. I couldn’t resist making this since I had some leftover puff pastry in the freezer. For the filling, I went with a pistachio frangipane because if you have not noticed, I have a bit of an obsession with pistachios.

My friend Helen told me that in the South of France where she is from, they also have a similar cake called “Couronne des Rois”. Check out her version here.

This year, we celebrated Epiphany a few days early because life was going to go back to normal after a couple of busy weeks. A slice of sweet pastry and good coffee is all I really wanted.

For the recipes, please click on all the links I provided. I hope you are enjoying the new year!