June 12
This is the second galette I’ve ever made. The first one was intended for this blog but it didn’t work out very well. I think I tried to ‘wing-it’ which is always a bad idea when you are not a proficient baker. This time, I researched the general approach to making galettes and this one was infinitely more successful (don’t worry, the burnt bits on the parchment paper are from rogue sugar crystals that I dropped on the baking sheet before putting this into the oven burning, the galette was safe and sound!). If you’ve never made a galette before, it is basically a more relaxed, rustic, pie. It doesn’t have to look perfect. In fact, a lot of it’s charm is the generous pile of fruit in the middle of a craggy, golden, crispy dough.
In my search for the most successful approach to making galette, I came across a helpful article on food52 which didn’t have a specific recipe, but went through the general approach to making galettes. I really appreciated that. Most of the time when I am trying to learn about making a baked good, I am looking for ratios that people use. Ratios of wet to dry, eggs to flour to sugar to fat. I wish that I understood what makes something moist, dry, rise, crispy, but there’s a lot to understand and I’m only just getting started.
One thing I feel pretty comfortable with at this point is the concept of using cold butter and breaking it up into flour to make a crispy, flaky dough. I like recipes that demand this (think pie crusts or scones) because you don’t have to bring butter to room temperature, which I think is one of the most annoying, deterrent thing when it comes to baking. As someone who keeps the majority of their butter in the freezer, who wants to wait until it softens, let alone come to room temperature, when they want to make something as simple as a cookie? Long story short, this is the opposite of that. If you aren’t comfortable with working butter into flour, I’ve also read some shortcuts like grating the cold butter in to ensure there are still chunks, which I haven’t tried but should work in principle.
Either way, I am happy that I finally have a galette in my repertoire. I think it is a really great summer dessert and is typically a crowd pleaser with it’s crispy crust, dotted with crunchy, raw pieces of sugar and the fruity filling, which isn’t too runny but definitely moist. I can’t wait to try this with peaches and blackberries.
Adapted from food52 and Smitten Kitchen
The most important step in this recipe is incorporating the cold butter into the flour. You want to make sure your butter is cold and that there are still chunks of butter left over in the dough- that's what makes it crispy.
You can make this galette with any fruit of your choice. The only thing to keep in mind is the moisture level that the fruit will release, which is one of the reasons for including the ground almonds. It sops up any extra moisture that would make your crust soggy or overflow.
It's great to use turbinado sugar on the crust because you end up with crunchy bits of raw sugar, yum.
Mix together flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.
Cut cold butter into large chunks and 'massage' it into the flour with your fingers. The butter should be partly incorporated, with the largest chunks being the size of large peas.
Dribble in ice cold water, mixing lightly with your hand to distribute.
Press dough into a disk and cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400F.
Finely grind together almonds and 1 tablespoon of the sugar, set aside. Don't over-process or it will turn into almond butter.
Cut strawberries in half (quarters if they are very large) and toss in 1 tablespoon of sugar, set aside.
When the dough is ready, roll out so that it is approximately 1/4 inch thick and 6 inches in diameter.
Distribute blended almonds onto dough, leaving 1.5 inches of uncovered dough around the rim (you may have a couple of tablespoons leftover).
Pile strawberries in the middle of the dough, leaving 1.5 inches of uncovered dough around the rim.
Fold up the sides of the dough, making sure there are no cracks or rips.
Brush the outside of the dough with milk or melted butter and press 1 tablespoon of raw/turbinado sugar evenly.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown and mixture is bubbly, rotating halfway through so that it cooks evenly.
Slide the parchment paper off of the baking tray and onto a cooling rack. Slide galette off of the parchment paper onto the cooling rack. Leave until galette is at room temperature.
http://mysecondbreakfast.com/strawberry-galette-recipe/Strawberry Galette Recipe was last modified: June 12, 2014 by
One thought on “Strawberry Galette Recipe”
it looks delicious!