As soon as the logs are swallowed up, the cakes show the tips of their crowns. If Epiphany is this Monday, January 6, the pancake, the frangipane in particular, will be on many tables this Sunday, January 5 at dessert time.
Window shopping enthusiasts can lick their lips with the pancakes that have taken over the pastries. “We have a huge success because they are homemade,” we say at L’étoile des Pains where Emmanuel prepares a clever mix “respecting the balance between butter, pastry cream, sugar and almonds.” “Good almonds!” says Stéphane Alary on the Place de la Cité, answering the question what it takes to make a good pancake: “Almonds from Sicily”, he specifies. And if the cost of butter is like chocolate This master chocolatier continues to make galettes for a good and simple reason: “I can't stop making galettes.”
Apple, raspberry, chocolate…
This is a guilty pleasure that suits frangipane gourmets. Because it is indeed her, in Aveyron, who is acclaimed. The Rouergats reserve themselves for brioche all year round with fouace. And to please all palates, as all roads lead… Aroma, pastry chefs multiply flavors. Apple, chocolate, raspberry, etc. Like at “La Pyramide des montagne”, rue du Touat, in Rodez, which offers the pancake.
To top it off, magnificent swan beans in black or white with gilding are slipped inside this year. “People were impatiently waiting for them,” says one of the sellers.
The imagination is in the bean
It must be said that there are many collectors in this little game and that the bean is the key asset that makes children want to taste it, even if it means leaving their share when it is found. The imagination is limitless. At Pascual, you can come across “a scooter or a squirrel” customers say. And why not a squirrel on a scooter in the cake? Stéphane Alary, for his part, approached a small club in Paris which offers a whole variation of “J’peux pas”. “I can’t, I have a unicorn” for little girls, “I can’t, I have an aperitif”, for those allergic to “Dry January”, “I can’t, I have knitted”, for grannies and, obviously: “I can’t, I have a cake.” Which will be the case for many Aveyron residents this Sunday lunchtime.
Epiphany and origin of the pancake
Epiphany, celebrated on January 6 by Catholics and January 19 by Orthodox, is a religious commemoration in homage to the arrival of the Three Wise Men in Bethlehem. They would have offered three gifts to the child Jesus: gold, frankincense and myrrh as a way of representing Jesus, at the same time king, God and mortal man.
The tradition of sharing a pancake is not linked to Christianity. It would be a tribute to the Saturnalia of Roman times. The slaves were invited to share a cake with the Romans. By finding the bean in the cake, they were allowed to get whatever they wanted for one day. As for frangipane, we owe it to Count Cesare Frangipani, who is said to have given the recipe that bears his name.
