mint Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Yes, it's that time of year again. So far (and I keep counting) I have had this delicacy 3 times[+o(]You'd have to live in splendid isolation, not have French neighbours or friends and not belong to any sort of "association" to have escaped.What can you do when someone brings one of these things to your house to have a drink with you and wish you bonne année or a neighbour beckons you across the hedge to go in and have a piece of their gdr?I have had these from expensive patiseries and also have had homemade ones and STILL I find the layers of puffy pastry with a bit of frangipane in the middle not that appetising. Admittedly the brioché ones can be eaten just like, well, brioche but the pastry ones!!!Then there is the worry of being the "lucky" finder of the fève and breaking my (very espensive) dental implants by inadvertently biting on it! I have ducked out of this year's énoisage after I read the menu. You've guessed already what's for dessert!I won't be able to so readily excuse myself from the gym agm where, as sure as eggs is eggs, there will be gdr.....ugh...My diet has been shot to pieces and now I shall have to repair the damage inflicted on me, albeit for the best of intentions, by this "treat". Ah ah, I am not French, GET ME OUT OF HERE![:D][:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Thus far, touch wood and pray to Bobo, I have managed not to eat any. But then I qualify as relatively isolated even though very ‘hail fellow well met’ in the street, through choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 You are not fully integrated until you start liking a Galette des Rois. We made our own last week using a Marmiton recipe (bought rolled pastry though .... will have to make own pastry next time)If you make your own, you have no excuse finding your Frangipane too thin as you can add at will.The result was somewhat shapeless but very nice to eat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I have often wondered how many people in France lose teeth at this time of year.Getting the feve is all very nice but there is a fair chance that you will not only win the crown but also need a new crown. I think it is tradition invented by dentists to boost profits methinks. So if you like Galette des Rois, just make sure your mutuelle is up to date before taking a bite. That is a top ALBF tip !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 ALBF, have you a new piglet in the family? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Must admit I have only ever had a shop bought one - I expected it to be a nice treat and I was very disappointed. Tasteless, and the sort of consistency that you chew and chew and it's still there in your mouth. However I can well believe that home made ones are very different, otherwise I can't see why they would be so popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 Getting the feve is all very nice but there is a fair chance that you will not only win the crown but also need a new crown. ALBF, I like that remark of yours about winning a crown but maybe losing another one![:D][:D][:D]So, you won't be weaning le petit bébé on gdr any time soon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Partook last evening of the tastiest gdr I have eaten in our nearly 14 years here .. bought by our neighbour at a reasonable price from a boulangerie on the outskirts of our nearest small town. Lots of frangipane and minimum of pastry with just-right-amount of sweetness in the pastry.Edit : luckily the neighbour got the feve .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 And do you have to go through the rigmarole of the smallest person present having to hide under the table, and then call out the name to whom the next slice should be delivered?Actually I find the French tend to dislike dried fruit, so must find British obsession with mince pies in Dec/Jan equally annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 So that might explain why dried fruit is so expensive and glacé cherries so hard to find?Loiseau, I don't know about your mince pies but my French friends can't seem to get enough of mine AND they love fruit cake. Mind you, both my mince pies and fruit cake have been greatly enhanced by idun's recipes[:D]Never tried them on Christmas pud so can't comment on that! I have a feeling that that MIGHT put them off dried fruit! Took me years to get to like Christmas pud but don't eat it now as I can't buy it and I am too lazy to make my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 @ WoolyBaby ALBF was finally born on Saturday morning.He will coming home tomorrow.....eek. I must say, top notch maternity/hospital where he was born with fantastic staff. ALBF gives them 20/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Congratulations. You may be some time, I take it. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 Nah, he ain't no Oates[:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Congratulations on the latest addition, albf! We can probably expect some postings from you in the wee small hours, then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Mint, I am hopeless at making mince pies, and anyway only like to eat a max of about three a year. I specially dislike them served, cold, alongside mulled wine, which often seems to happen pre-Christmas!Galette des rois seems to vary from area to area. I remember somewhere (I think Paris) where it was more of a biscuit thing than the flaky pastry or brioche things that I was always being served in the Vendée. The advantage of the biscuity version was that if you looked at the base you could usually spot the baby Jesus showing through the bottom crust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Mazal Tov @ M. et Madame ALBF [:)]Especially Madame - sounds like a long drawn out birth.I bet his big brother and sister are thrilled to bits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Congrats to the ALBF family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 It's not always baby Jesus nowadays, Loiseau. You get all sorts of film and cartoon characters (which sadly I never recognise) and the last one I had was a ......ceramic mushroom! I mean it wasn't even one of those magic ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 In answer to the original question, mint; you could substitute "galette des rois " with "mince pies", "Christmas pudding", "Bûche de Noël" or "Christmas cake" and probably find the same. There's a good reason why we are only subjected to these things for the briefest of periods each year. On a purely personal note, I'd make an exception for panettone. That is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 @ patfThe birth was quite straightforward to be fair and very quick. Luckily we only live 10 mins from the hospital.When we lived rural (where we had our first two kids) the hospital was 1hr away by car. Had we lived there, she would never had made it in time to get an epidural. That is lesson number 3 when buying a house in France. If you are pregnant then live near a hospital. Well unless you like pain that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 ALBF, LOL!..just saying, but there are doubtless many on here who absolutely, categorically and unequivocally know a LOT more about the pain of childbirth than you can ever know. Why, I even suspect that many will tell you that it is perfectly possible to have a baby without wanting or needing an epidural! Imagine that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 " ¿"In answer to the original question, mint; you could substitute "galette des rois " with "mince pies", "Christmas pudding", "Bûche de Noël" or "Christmas cake" and probably find the same. There's a good reason why we are only subjected to these things for the briefest of periods each year. On a purely personal note, I'd make an exception for panettone. That is all.No, I stay well away from panettone!We spent many holidays in Sardinia and we learned that if you went to someone's home at Christmas, you took a panettone It was said by the locals that nobody actually ate these things. The panettone they received would be taken by them to visit someone else and that someone else would take it to another person's home and so on. So it's almost a game of pass the panettone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Betty said "I even suspect that many will tell you that it is perfectly possible to have a baby without wanting or needing an epidural! Imagine that!"The epidural was for me ! LOLChildbirth is very painful for papa's to you know. Especially in the ears. As soon as one stops screaming the other one starts. It's a flippin nightmare if you have a hangover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 @mint.. I never take panettone anywhere. I buy it and eat it in the privacy of my own home where I don't need to share! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 No, and our eldest starts gagging at the sight of a buche de noel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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