The crown of kings

In theCatholic religion, the second Sunday after Christmas, it is tradition to celebrateEpiphany. She celebrates the Christ's Coming to the World and visit of the Magi kings.

Tradition wants us to celebrate Epiphany in "pulling the kings", namely, to discover the party in a cake or crown of kings. So he who finds her is the queen or king of the day !

I will not come back to the debate of the "true" pastry of lEpiphany between frangipane cake and brioche. But it would seem that historically the brioche is older than the cake. In the Middle Ages, the French tasted bread ball where they inserted a bean Then the recipe improved. This is in the sixteenth century that Marie de Medici would have brought back the recipe for frangipane cake on returning fromItaly.

The recipe (technical references Ecole Ferrandi)

Ingredients for 6 people

Garniture

• 150 g of candied fruit
• 25 g of Grand Marnier

Poolish

• 50 g of whole milk
• 90 g flour
• 15 g of baker's yeast

Brioche

• 250 g flour
• 6 g salt
• 60 g sugar
• 4 g of orange blossom
• 125 g of butter cut into pieces and softened
• 10 g baker's yeast
• 45 g of whole milk
• 2 large eggs

Dorour

• 2 egg yolks
• a little milk

Decoration

• Candied fruit and/or dried fruit for decoration
• Sugar in grains

Preparation (do not hesitate to do it over 2 days, waiting times are long)

Prepare the candied fruit cutting them in dice and putting them to macerate in the Grand Marnier.

Put 15 g of yeast in 10 g of lukewarm milk, dilute and wait 10 minutes. In the robot bowl where you put the kneading hook, mix 90 g of flour, 40 g of milk and yeast diluted in milk. Knead for 5 minutes and let stand 1 h 30 at room temperature.

Dilute the baker's yeast in a little lukewarm milk and wait 10 minutes again. Put all the ingredients of the brioche aside the butter in the robot bowl and knead 7 minutes very slowly then 10 minutes at medium speed.

Add the drained candied fruits and butter and mix gently.

Put this dough on a board and leave it for 1 hour at room temperature.

Fold the dough on itself to degazer and cool it for the night (minimum 2 h).

Preheat the oven to 30° and turn off. Make a ball with the dough and with the thumb make him a hole in the middle. Stretch to form a crown and place on a baking sheet. Grow it 2 hours in the oven in which you put a boiling water pan to keep the heat.

Prepare the gilding with egg and milk and then with a brush, brown the crown.

Place the sugar in grains over the entire crown and bake at 140 °C for 20 minutes. If it has swollen a lot and the hole disappears, you can put a piece in it to keep the central hole.

Let cool on a grid.

And decorate!