fruit galette

When my sister first passed along this recipe to me, I didn’t ask where it came from, I was just happy to be making my first galette. I won’t lie, this happened just at the beginning of this summer. In the past, I had always made fruit pies or fruit crumbles. My first reaction to her email was, why is this recipe so long? I had read through three paragraphs and I hadn’t even got through the dough portion yet. My sister’s response was, you can always be like mom and use a frozen pie dough. Being that this was a last minute recipe for a birthday dessert that was happening the next day, I opted for the frozen dough option.

My first galette came out just perfect and I was so pleased I have made two more since. You know what’s great about galettes, with very little effort you get a beautiful dessert that people rarely see, so they are not only impressed but also intrigued.

More recently, I thought to ask my sister where her original recipe came from, her response, Tartine. If you haven’t heard of Tartine, it’s a lovely cafe and bakery in San Francisco with not one but two cookbooks out. I am still disappointed that we never made it there on our visit to San Francisco earlier in the year. But maybe that is reason enough to go back.

My sister also had some great advice, when I finally decide to make the dough by hand I can do it in advance. She makes her dough and freezes it. Then, when she wants a quick dessert, she pulls out the dough and she swears it still tastes delicious!

Serves 6
Inspired by Tartine

1 prepared pie dough, defrosted
4 cups of fruit, thinly sliced (if necessary)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 to 4 tablespoons brown sugar
juice of half a lemon
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
granulated sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the fruit, vanilla and salt. (The combination of fruit is endless. You can really use whatever you would like, just think about color contrast. I really enjoyed the last three combinations I made, strawberries and plums, plums and peaches and, most recently, blueberries and raspberries.)

Ball up your prepared pie dough. On a floured surface, with a rolling pin, re-roll the dough into a large circle. (I found that with prepared doughs, this is the best way to eliminate cracking.)

Lightly flour a baking stone. Fold your dough in half and place it on the prepared stone. Unfold the dough and pour all the fruit in the center, being carefully not to get close to any of the edges. Fold up the edges of your dough, sealing in all the fruit. Be sure you don’t have any holes or gaps where juice could leak out. Depending on how sweet your fruit is sprinkle anywhere from 2 to 4 tablespoons of sugar on top. Then top with a squeeze of lemon juice.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Using a pastry brush, brush the outside edges of the dough. (You will have a lot of leftover egg and milk.) Sprinkle a bit of sugar along all the edges of the dough.

Bake the galette until the crust has visibly puffed, is dark brown in color and the juice from the fruit is bubbling, about 45-60 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool slightly on the baking stone. The galette can be served hot or at room temperature. (Make sure you run a spatula underneath the galette while still hot to prevent any sticking, expecially if you plan to let it sit for a bit.)

I typically make my galettes one day ahead. Once they have cooled I cover and place in the refrigerator overnight. Then when we are ready to eat it the next day, I pop it back in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes to warm everything through.