Fresh Fruit Galette

Cheating confession #1: I've used this galette recipe before. But I've only ever made it with apples, never with fresh berries as the recipe suggests. There have been so many lovely looking berries in the grocery store lately, I thought I'd give it a shot this week. Knowing that not everyone worships certain fruits the way I do, I decided to make two different ones: blackberry and cherry (I'll put cherries in anything, no lie, I love them so). No lard in the dough, so it's vegetarian--bonus for guests. This crust turns out nice and crispy. The filling is not too sweet. The dough is really easy to make, a little soft, but still fairly easy to work with (cheating confession #2--I didn't make it by hand, I used my food processor--I had a lot going on Friday).

The recipe is from Baking with Julia and here it is in its entirety with commentary, etc.


Galette Dough *click here for printable version*

Makes enough for two 8-inch galettes

The cornmeal in this wonderfully buttery dough not only gives it a bit of crunch, it makes it crisp enough to stand up to soft and syrupy fillings and sturdy enough to be rolled to extreme thinness. You can use this dough to line a tart pan, but it is particularly well suited to rustic tarts called galettes--flat, open-face, free-from tarts whose edges are folded over the filling like the ruffled top of a drawstring purse.

The dough is made quickly either by hand or in a food processor and produces enough for two galettes.

3 tablespoons sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
1/3 cup (approximately) ice water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 to 8 pieces

To make the dough by hand: stir the sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water together in a small bowl and set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and stir with a fork to mix. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl, tossing them once or twice just to coat them with flour. With a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour, aiming for pieces of butter that range in size from bread crumbs to small peas. The smaller pieces will make the dough tender, the larger ones will make it flaky.

Sprinkle the cold sour cream mixture over the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork to evenly distribute it. After you've added all of the sour cream, the dough should be moist enough to stick together when pressed; if it's not, add additional cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time. With your hands, gather the curds of dough together. (You'll have a soft, malleable dough, the kind you might want to overwork.)

To make the dough in a food processor: stir the sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water together in a small bowl; set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in the work bowl of a processor fitted with the metal blade; pulse to combine. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl and pulse 8 to 10 times, or until the mixture is speckled with pieces of butter that vary in size from bread crumbs to peas. With the machine running, add the sour cream mixture and process just until the dough forms soft, moist curds.

Chilling the dough: turn dough out of bowl or processor, divide it in half, and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.

Storing: The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a day or two, or it can be wrapped airtight and frozen for a month. Thaw, still wrapped, in the refrigerator. It is convenient to roll the dough into rounds, place parchment between each round, and freeze them wrapped in plastic; this way, you'll need only about 20 minutes to defrost a round of dough at room temperature before it can be filled, folded into a galette, and baked.

Berry Galette

Makes 4 to 6 servings

This, as heirloom cookbooks used to say, is a keeper. It is so simple and inviting and so enjoyable to construct that you'll find yourself turning to it frequently. It's called a galette because it's flat, open-faced and free-form--the crust is rolled into a circle the filling is piled in the center, and the edges of the crust are turned in and ruffled. The filling can be mixed berries as suggested here (if you include strawberries, don't include many, as they're too watery. peeled soft fruits like peaches or apricots, or, in fall and winter, tart apples or sweet pears.

1/2 recipe Galette Dough, chilled

1-1/2 cups mixed fresh berries (or cut-up peeled fruit)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll it into an 11-inch circle that's about 1/8 inch thick. Since the dough is soft, you'll need to lift it now and then and toss some more flour under it and over the top. Roll up the dough around your rolling pin and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.

Spread the berries over the dough, leaving a 2- to 3-inch border.


Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the sugar over the fruit and drizzle on the honey, if you're using it.


Cut the butter into slivers and scatter it on top of the fruit. Fold the uncovered border of dough up over the filling, allowing the dough to pleat as you lift it up and work your way around the galette. (Because you're folding a wide edge of dough onto a smaller part of the circle, it will pleat naturally--just go with it.)


Dip a pastry brush in water, give the edge of the crust a light coating, and then sprinkle the crust with the remaining teaspoon of sugar.

Baking the galette: Bake the galette for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and crisp. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the galette rest on the sheet for 10 minutes. Slip a wide spatula or a small baking sheet under the galette and slide it onto the cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, cutting the tart with a pizza wheel or a sharp knife.

Storing: The galette is best eaten the day it is made.

Contributing Baker: Flo Braker

I did opt to use the honey, I used spun as opposed to traditional. I also like to sprinkle a little bit of lemon zest over the filling before folding the crust over it. Lemon zest is another thing that I use in absolutely everything, from pastas, to chicken dishes, to desserts.


As you can see, the cherry one let go of a lot more juice than the blackberry. I don't know if that's just because cherries have a lot more juice in them to begin with, or if there was a small tear in the crust that allowed the juice to run out. Whatever. It didn't matter. The crust stayed crisp in spite of sitting in juice for a while.

I served it with homemade vanilla frozen yogurt which has a little bit of tartness to it that made the whole dish absolutely delicious.

TGIP Rating--KEEPER--As Flo said. Try with every kind of fruit imaginable.

Next up: Alton Brown's Overnight Cinnamon Rolls. Just in time for Fathers' Day.


P.S.

Sometimes my kitchen looks like the scene of a particularly grisly murder.