Epiphany...not Tiffany!

Bonjour mes amis. It's that time of year again when all the patisseries are chock full of the sweet flaky Galette des Rois, puff pastry "pie" filled with frangipane or almond paste. Epiphany celebrates the 3 Wise Men arriving in Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus though I don't know how wise they were if they arrived 10 days late... they no doubt got lost and didn't want to ask for directions, but I digress. Back to Epiphany. It is quite a celebration here in France, so much so that at work today we all stopped for and hour to share a few Galettes des Rois and sparkling cider. A little trinket or feve (bean) is in each one and the person that gets the trinket in their slice of Galette is crowned King or Queen for the day. Click here for the Galettes des Rois recipe...and to explain the title of this post. Bon Appetit and Happy Epiphany :-)

Comments

[Cindy]

I made one today. I love the galette des Rois, had a few at work too :)

[laura @ cucina testa rossa]

hi cindy - i just bought a mini one for myself so I am *guaranteed* to be the queen! :-)

[sam]

that looks so scrumptious. I wish I'd remembered to try and make one this year.
364 days until i have another excuse, huh?

[Ivonne]

I have never actually tried a Galette des Rois, but it is on my list of items to bake one day.

Thanks for sharing!

[Charlotte]

Yum, yum! I wish galette des rois was as easy to find here. I am not sure King Cake a la cajenne is quite the same thing. (We can't really get that here, either.)

To muddy the waters of the title, "Theophany" is an alternate name for the Feast of the Epiphany (and, indeed, the term the Orthodox usually use). "Epiphany" is a term for a relevation or manifestation (our church program said "The Manifestation of Christ to the Nations" ... e.g. everyone but the Jews, who got Him first), and "Theophany" specifically for a divine manifestation. I seem to recall that "Theophanie" was given occasionally as a name in the Middle Ages and later, and you can see Tiffany from there.

By most accounts the Magi took more than 12 days to arrive ... I'm sure they would have appreciated a piece of almond filled cake when they finally got there!