Galette

Galettes are the little cousins to pies. Fruit filling is enclosed in a roughly formed pastry crust. Choose galettes for a rustic look and a minimalist approach to pie, and for when you want or have less filling to go around. Since they are shallower than a traditional pie, and fruit juices escape from the roughly formed dough, I recommend draining the fruit mixture before filling galettes. Reduce this liquid into a concentrated fruity syrup to drizzle over the baked galette.

Yield: makes two large (9-inch) galettes or four to five small (6-inch) galettes

What You Need:

• 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks or ¾ cup) cold unsalted butter

• 3 cups flour

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• 2-3 tablespoons cane sugar or turbinado sugar, plus additional for sprinkling

• ½ - 1 cup ice water

• 4-5 cups prepared fruit filling (see below)

• 2 tablespoons tapioca flour/starch or cornstarch

• 1 egg, beaten or 2 tablespoons heavy cream

What You Do:

1. Cut the butter into small cubes (4 cubes per tablespoon) and place on a plate or parchment lined sheet pan. Freeze for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the fruit filling (see below).

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and sugar. 

3. With your fingers, gently mix in the cold butter, pressing and crumbling until you have small pea-sized pieces coated in flour. 

4. Add ½ cup ice water to the flour and butter mixture with a spoon until it just comes together. Add more ice water a few drops at a time, if needed, so that it forms into a ball. 

5. With your hand, in the bowl, knead 1 or 2 times until the dough holds together. Alternatively, turn the dough out onto the countertop and knead a few times until it holds together.

6. Quickly and decisively, divide the dough into 2-5 pieces of roughly the same size. Form each piece gently into a 3-inch disk and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Freeze for 15 minutes or refrigerate at least one hour or up to 1 day. [Unused disks can be frozen for up to 3 months.]

7. Place a mesh strainer over a bowl or wide measuring cup. Drain the fruit, reserving the liquid. Return the fruit to the bowl and stir in the tapioca starch.

8. One at a time, on flour dusted parchment paper, roll the disks of dough into rounds, about ⅛ inch thick and 8 inches in diameter. Assemble about ¾ cup of the drained fruit filling in the middle of each round, leaving a border of about 1 - 1½ inches all the way around. If desired, you can carefully place sliced fruit in concentric circles or patterns.

9. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

10. Brush the galette crusts with the beaten egg or cream, and sprinkle with turbinado or coarse sugar. Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is light golden brown and fruit is slightly bubbly.

11. Meanwhile put the reserved fruit liquid into a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat until reduced by about 50% to a syrup. About 25 minutes into the baking time, remove the baking sheet from the oven. Brush some of the syrup on the fruit. Return to oven and finish baking.

12. Allow to cool completely and garnish with herb leaves, whipped cream, and additional fruit syrup if desired.

Sourdough Discard Variation: For a tangy and even flakier pie crust you can use some of your collected sourdough discard in the pie crust. In step 4, simply replace the first ½ cup of water with ½ cup of refrigerator cold sourdough discard. Continue as instructed, gradually adding drops of ice water as needed.

Plant Based Variation: In place of butter, use either ¾ cup vegetable shortening, ¾ cup plant based butter substitute, ⅔ cup cold solidified coconut oil, or ⅔ cup cold solidified olive oil. When using coconut oil or olive oil, add ¼ teaspoon baking soda to the dry ingredients to help crust rise when baking. Omit the egg or cream wash in step 10. Instead, brush 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil combined with 1 tablespoon maple syrup over the crust in step 11 when brushing on the fruit syrup.

Whole Grain Variation: Use whole wheat, spelt or oat flour in place of up to 1 cup of the all purpose flour.

The Fruit Filling

What You Need:

• 5 cups fruit, (2.5 pounds peaches, plums, apricots, apples, etc. and 2 pints blueberries, raspberries, cherries, etc.) peeled if desired, pitted, sliced 1/4 inch thick or diced into 1/2 inch chunks

• ⅓ cup sugar (white, brown, cane, turbinado, raw, maple crystals, or coconut)

• 3 pinches fine sea salt

• 1-2 teaspoons ground spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom, etc.) or the insides of a vanilla bean, optional

• Zest and juice from one lemon*, optional but highly recommended

*notes:

• With cranberries, pears and apples, try orange in place of lemon, and only use half of a medium orange

• With apples, you can omit the tapioca flour/starch or cornstarch

What You Do:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the prepared fruit, sugar, salt, spices, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

2. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours. You can refrigerate if you choose but this is not necessary.

Cobbler

In a cobbler, fruit filling is baked under a biscuit-style batter or dough. Dropped or spooned on top, it bakes to a bumpy or cobbled surface. Choose cobbler for a straightforward way to feed a crowd or serve individual portions. I love this cobbler because it’s like a fruit dessert topped with a vanilla sugar cookie. Adults and children are equally pleased.

Yield: 8-10 servings

What You Need:

• 4-5 cups prepared fruit filling (see below)

• 1¼ cup all purpose flour

• ¼ cup sugar

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, etc.

• 1 stick, 6 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼ inch chunks, divided

• 1 egg

• 2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

What You Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. Gently mix in 6 tablespoons of the butter with a pastry blender or your fingers until you have small pea-sized pieces of butter coated in flour. 

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, cream and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture with a fork just until combined.

4. Transfer the prepared fruit filling to one large (13x9 inch or 8x8 inch) baking dish, pie plate or 10-12 individual (3 inch) ramekins. Dot with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Using a spring loaded scoop, drop evenly sized mounds of dough on top of the fruit, evenly spaced out. If you don’t have a spring loaded scoop, use the 2 spoon method: with one spoon, scoop up a mound of dough, and use the second spoon to scrape it onto the fruit topping.

5. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour (25-30 minutes for smaller portions) or until fruit is bubbly, top is browned and a toothpick inserted into cobbler topping comes out clean. Cover lightly with foil if topping is browning too quickly. Allow to cool completely on a baking rack.

The Fruit Filling

What You Need:

• 5 cups fruit, (2.5 pounds peaches, plums, apricots, apples, etc. and 2 pints blueberries, raspberries, cherries, etc.) peeled if desired, pitted, sliced 1/4 inch thick or diced into 1/2 inch chunks

• ⅓ cup sugar (white, brown, cane, turbinado, raw, maple crystals, or coconut)

• 3 pinches fine sea salt

• 1-2 teaspoons ground spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom, etc.) or the insides of a vanilla bean, optional

• Zest and juice from one lemon*, optional but highly recommended

• 2 tablespoons tapioca flour/starch or cornstarch

*note: with cranberries, pears and apples, try orange in place of lemon, and only use half of a medium orange

What You Do:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the prepared fruit, sugar, salt, spices, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

2. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours. You can refrigerate if you choose but this is not necessary.

3. Immediately before baking, stir in the tapioca flour/starch or cornstarch.