The crown of kings

In theCatholic religion, the second Sunday afterChristmas, it is tradition to celebrateEpiphany. She celebrates theChrist's Coming to the Worldandvisit of the Magi kings.

Tradition wants us to celebrateEpiphanyin "pulling the kings", namely, to discover the party in acakeorcrown of kings. So he who finds her isthe queen or king of the day !

I will not come back to the debate of the "true"pastryof lEpiphanybetweenfrangipane cakeandbrioche. But it would seem that historicallythe brioche is older than the cake. In the Middle Ages, the French tastedbread ball where they inserted a beanThen the recipe improved. This isin the sixteenth centurythatMarie de Mediciwould have brought backthe recipe for frangipane cakeon returning fromItaly.

The recipe (technical references Ecole Ferrandi)

Ingredients for 6 people

Garniture

• 150 g ofcandied fruit
• 25 g ofGrand Marnier

Poolish

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

Brioche

• 250 g flour
• 6 g salt
• 60 g sugar
• 4 g oforange blossom
• 125 g ofbutter cut into pieces and softened
• 10 g baker's yeast
• 45 g ofwhole 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 thecandied fruitcutting them in dice and putting them tomacerate in the Grand Marnier.

Put 15 g of yeast in 10 g of lukewarm milk, dilute and wait 10 minutes. In therobot bowlwhere you put thekneading hook, mix 90 g of flour, 40 g of milk andyeast diluted in milk. Kneadfor 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!