This is a galette des rois built entirely out of Breton ingredients, and it is square instead of round. Maison Bordier swaps almond cream for hazelnut, builds it on Buckwheat Butter rather than plain butter, and runs a crunchy buckwheat caramel through the middle. It serves six and bakes for 30 minutes. Nothing about it is difficult, but there are three components, and the order matters.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Challenging
- Serves: 6
- Active time: About 45 minutes, plus chilling while the oven heats
- Cook: 30 minutes at 185°C (365°F)
- Key ingredient: 125 g Bordier Buckwheat Butter
Why this works
Buckwheat is not a wheat and barely a grain, and in Brittany it is closer to a birthright than an ingredient. Jean-Yves Bordier put roasted buckwheat into butter in 2016 at a Breton chef's suggestion, and the result tastes toasted, faintly bitter and a long way from sweet. That bitterness is the whole reason this galette is not cloying. A standard frangipane is sugar, nuts and butter, three sweet things in a row. Replace the butter with the buckwheat version and you get a floor under it.
Hazelnut instead of almond pushes the same direction. Hazelnut powder is oilier and more assertive than almond, and it sits naturally with roasted buckwheat: both are toasted, both are brown, both want caramel. The buckwheat caramel piped between the strands of cream is the third pass at the same flavor, this time with crunch, since the ground roasted seeds keep some texture in the sugar. Three expressions of one idea rather than three competing ones.
Ingredients
Serves six. The Bordier jarred caramel is a salted butter caramel; any good one works. Sarrazin is the French word for buckwheat, and it appears in both the flour and the seeds here.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Churned Buckwheat Butter by Bordier | 125 g | 4.4 oz, exactly one block |
| Pure butter puff pastry rectangles | 2 | 2 |
| Hazelnut powder (hazelnut flour) | 120 g | About 1 1/4 cups |
| Sugar | 125 g | About 2/3 cup |
| Buckwheat flour | 10 g | About 1 tablespoon |
| Roasted buckwheat seeds | 60 g | About 2 oz, roughly 1/3 cup |
| Medium eggs, plus 1 egg yolk | 2 + 1 yolk | 2 + 1 yolk |
| Salted butter liquid caramel | 1 jar | 1 jar |
| Milk | 1 teaspoon | 1 teaspoon |
| Salt | 1 pinch | 1 pinch |
Method
Step 1: Make the buckwheat caramel and the hazelnut cream
Start with the crunchy buckwheat caramel: warm the caramel until it softens, then blend in the ground roasted buckwheat seeds. Set it aside to infuse. Put the Bordier Buckwheat Butter in a bowl and melt it in the microwave or over a bain-marie. Stir in the sugar, then the hazelnut powder and the buckwheat flour. Add the beaten eggs and mix with a spoon rather than a whisk, so you do not work air into the cream and make the galette puff during baking.
Step 2: Pipe the cream onto the first pastry
Roll out the first sheet of pastry, leaving it on its parchment. Cut it into a square. Brush the border of the square with water. Using a piping bag, pipe the buckwheat hazelnut cream inside the square, leaving a 2 cm (about 3/4 inch) margin all round.
Step 3: Add the caramel and close the galette
Warm the caramel again and pour it between the strands of hazelnut cream. Set the bean on top. Cover with the second sheet of puff pastry, cut to the same size. Press gently with a fingertip around the filling so the two sheets bond. Put the galette somewhere cool while the oven comes up to 185°C (365°F).
Step 4: Glaze and bake
Beat the egg yolk with the milk and the pinch of salt and brush it over the galette. Scallop the edges and score a pattern into the top with the tip of a knife, remembering to cut a small vent in the center. Bake for 30 minutes at 185°C (365°F). Cool on a wire rack and eat warm.
Tips from our kitchen
- A note on the nut powder. Bordier's ingredient list and the recipe title both call for hazelnut powder, while their step text says almond, which looks like a carry-over from their almond version. We have followed the ingredient list. Use hazelnut.
- Spoon, never whisk. Air in a frangipane is the enemy. It inflates in the oven, then collapses as the galette cools and pulls the top pastry into a dip. Mixing slowly with a spoon keeps the cream dense and the top flat.
- Grind the buckwheat seeds coarse. Blitzed to powder they disappear into the caramel and you lose the crunch that gives the recipe its name. A few short pulses leaves recognisable pieces.
- Chill before baking, not just while the oven heats. Twenty minutes in the refrigerator firms the butter in the pastry, and cold pastry rises higher and separates into cleaner layers. If your kitchen is warm, make it thirty.
- Score shallow. The knife should mark the top layer, not go through it. Cut too deep and the caramel finds the gap and burns onto the tray.
- Do not skip the center vent. Steam has to leave somewhere. Without a hole, the galette splits along a seam of its own choosing and the filling escapes.
- Water on the border, not egg wash. Bordier calls for water to seal the two sheets, and it is right. Egg wash on the seam makes a slick layer that stops the pastry bonding.
How to serve it
Eat it warm, the day it is baked, cut into six squares. Cider is the Breton answer and it works better here than coffee, since the acidity cuts the hazelnut fat. Whoever finds the bean is king for the afternoon. If the buckwheat butter is new to you, our Bordier butter guide covers where else it earns its place, savoury and sweet.
Where to Buy Bordier Buckwheat Butter in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Buckwheat Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): roasted Breton buckwheat in hand-churned butter, toasted and faintly bitter, made for pastry like this.
For the rest of the range, browse the Maison Bordier collection.
Frequently asked questions
How much butter do I need to buy for this recipe?
Exactly one block. The recipe calls for 125 g and a Bordier block is 125 g, or 4.4 oz. Buy a second if you want a margin for error, since there is nothing left over.
Can I substitute another butter?
Bordier Unsalted Butter with a tablespoon of finely ground toasted buckwheat worked into the cream gets you partway. It will not have the same depth, because in the Bordier block the roasted buckwheat has been sitting in the fat rather than added at the last minute.
Where do I find roasted buckwheat seeds?
They are sold as kasha or roasted buckwheat groats in most health food shops and Eastern European groceries. If you can only find raw groats, toast them dry in a pan until they smell nutty.
How should I store the butter?
Wrapped, in the refrigerator, used by the date on the pack. Butter takes on the smell of whatever is near it, so keep it apart from strong foods. To hold it longer, freeze the block whole and thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.
Does the butter need to be refrigerated?
Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Move it into the refrigerator as soon as it arrives.
Can I assemble the galette in advance?
Yes. Build it, cover it and keep it in the refrigerator for a few hours, then glaze and bake before serving. Do not glaze early: egg wash left sitting goes patchy and bakes unevenly.
Related reading
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- Paysan Breton: The Breton Butter Guide
- How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.