Nata Tseruashvili is the Executive Chef and Partner of QooQy Bakery, where cookies, cakes, buns, breads, diabetic products, coffee, drinks and gift boxes are presented. Nata is a French language philologist by her primary profession. Then, in France, she studied French literature and art at French universities: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV and Université Paris 8. While living in Paris, she became interested in confectionery and decided to continue her studies in confectionery. It was not an easy decision. However, in the end, she got involved in a completely new activity. Nata has successfully completed the Confectionery, Ice Cream and Chocolate Making Technology Program at the Académie de Creteil, the French National Center for Higher Education and Research. After completing the confectionery program, she apprenticed at numerous confectioneries and hotels in Paris, including the Le George-Four Season Hôtel George V, which is a Michelin star owner. After returning to Georgia, Nata works as a lecturer of the Confectionery Program at the Culinary Academy of Georgian Agrarian University. She was actively involved in the development of the confectionery program of the Culinary Academy, in which special emphasis is given to the study of confectionery preparation technologies and is quite a complex and comprehensive program. At the same time, Nata is the co-author of several culinary books developed together with Georgian Culinary Academy: - “Georgian Taste” published by Bakur Sulakauri, 2018. “Meskhetian Tabla”, 2018, USAID Growth Project in Georgia, “Colchian Tabla”, 2019, USAID Growth Project in Georgia. Nata also works as a lecturer at a vocational college - Icarus.

step 1

Preparation technology: First dough: flour - 300 g; water - 150 g; salt - 5 g. Second dough: butter - 300 g; flour - 100 g. Put flour, salt and water in a bowl. Knead a dough until homogeneous (homogeneous means a uniform, equal structure). Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and let it rest in fridge for 1 hour. It is also recommended to leave the dough in the fridge overnight. To prepare the second dough (butter), mix 100 grams of flour and 300 grams of fragmented cold butter to get a sandy mass. After sanding, gather the mass. After this we obtain a non-uniform dough mass. Roll out the mass to a thickness of about 1 cm. When rolling out the dough it is desirable to give it a rectangle shape. Wrap the food in aplastic wrap. Cool in a fridge for about 40-45 minutes.

step 2

After cooling, transfer to floured parchment paper, cover with second parchment paper and roll out to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Try to give the already shaped dough more length than width. After rolling, cool it well in a fridge again for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, return to the first dough. Roll it out slightly, try to give it the shape of “butter dough”, however, if we want it to be much shorter, it is desirable that all the corners have the same width.

step 3

After resting, place the flattened “butter dough” on the working table. Place the freshly flattened and formed dough on top. Fold the butter dough on the sides and stick well when on all sides, so that the dough does not come out when rolling out. Flour the working table lightly and roll out the dough. Roll out slowly in length so that the thickness of the dough should be reduced from 1 cm to 0.5 cm. After flattening, perform the first “difficult folding”. Then, roll out the dough and place in the fridge for 1 or 1.5 hours. After resting the dough, roll it again to a thickness of about 1 cm and perform the second “difficult folding”. Wrap again and place in the fridge for 1 or 1.5 hours. After resting, roll again to a thickness of 1 cm and perform the third “simple folding”. Wrap the dough again in a plastic wrap and place in folding for 2-3 hours before use.

step 4

Before the dough cools well, prepare the frangipani cream. Frangipani cream can be prepared by mixing two types of cream, almond cream and patisserie cream. Almond cream: 60 grams of butter; 60 grams of powdered sugar; 60 grams of almond powder; 5 grams of corn starch; 1 egg; 100 grams of ready-made patisserie cream; 20-30 ml of black rum.

step 5

Preparation technology: beat butter and powdered sugar until white, add almond powder and corn starch. Mix well. Add the whole egg and beat. Then, add the pre-prepared and well-whipped patisserie cream and whisk until a creamy and homogeneous mass is obtained. Finally, add the rum and mix well. Place the prepared cream in the fridge.

step 6

Patisserie cream (boiled French cream): milk - 250 g; sugar - 75 g; egg yolk - 2; Patisserie powder - 30 g. Preparation technology: beat egg yolks, sugar and patisserie powder until white. Boil milk and pour the white mass. Mix well and return to the saucepan. Stand over medium heat and bring to a boil, while stirring constantly. It will start to thicken during boiling. When thickening, remove from the heat and stir quickly with a hand mixer. Then return to the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Transfer the prepared cream to a plastic wrap. Wrap and cool in a fridge for 1 hour. Let’s return to the dough. Take it out of the fridge, roll it on a lightly floured table to a thickness of 0.5 and cut two 18 cm diameter dough galette from the flattened dough. Place the first dough galette on a baking tray, lined with baking paper before placing the dough. After placing the first dough galette, soak the edges of the dough with a water brush to a width of 2 cm.

step 7

Place the frangipani cream in a pastry bag and go from the center of the dough galette in a spiral to a water-soaked area. Select a small porcelain figure and place it on the cream surface where you want. Cover the second dough galette from the top over the finished assembly. However, before placing the cream on top, flatten it slightly in size to match it with the diameter of the bottom dough. After covering the top of the dough, apply light pressure on the edges so that the dough sticks well to the dough. This way we will avoid running of the cream out during baking.

step 8

Lightly apply a mixture of egg yolks and a little water over the Galette ready for baking. Make strips using the knife blade on the surface from the center to the edges, so that the surface of the dough does not cut too much. Then, place in a preheated oven and bake. Baking mode: 180-185 degrees for 30 minutes.

step 9

After baking, apply the cane sugar syrup or pre-prepared sugar syrup on the top with a brush. Sugar syrup: water - 100 g; sugar - 100. Place in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cool well before use. Cut a well-chilled Galette with a saw knife and during tasting, don’t forget to warn everyone that a tiny porcelain figure is placed in the galley.

How To Serve

Recommendation: eat carefully and if you are lucky and you fins a figure it means that you have become the king of the party (or gathering). The Galette des Rois is a traditional French dessert baked on the twelfth day of Christmas in January and is very popular among family and friends.