Take me to a patisserie, and 9 times out of 10, I will order a fruit tart. They deliver the perfect combination of flavor and texture. They are also surprisingly easy to make at home. This is a simple pastry recipe that yields a flaky crust, reminiscent of a true puff pastry. In the fall, I like to fill the crust with a brown sugar/cinnamon/apple mixture, with vanilla ice cream on the side. You can fill the galette with any combination of fruit. Figs and honey would be another delicious fall combination, perhaps with marscapone ice cream. Pears, or pear and frangipane, are wonderful as well. In winter, I use apples (peeled, because the skin toughens in storage), or frozen fruit (keep in mind that frozen fruits will exude more liquids).
In summer, you might try a mixture of berries, or berries and apricots, or cherries and apricots… I like to bake my galette in a 9.5″ pie pan, because the fruit juices tend to bubble and run (berries exude more juice than apples and pears), and the pan’s sides keep the mess to a minimum. After all, the point is to enjoy the galette, not to spend hours scrubbing the oven.
Ingredients (proportions take from this Gourmet recipe):
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water
Cut the stick of butter into quarter-inch thick squares. Blend the salt and flour in a bowl, and then begin incorporating the butter into the dry ingredients. You can use a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers. I like using my fingers–the Luddite way, again–because it gives me an idea of the dough’s consistency. I can gauge, through touch, whether the dough will be dry or tacky, before I add water to the dough. In any case, stop working the butter into the flour when the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, with pea-sized lumps of butter scattered throughout the dough. These larger pieces of butter are essential to the dough’s flakiness. (When you roll out the dough, these pea-sized lumps of butter will create pale”streaks” in the dough.) Add the ice water one tablespoon at a time, until the dough holds together in a ball. Don’t worry if the dough seems sticky/tacky. The dough will “dry” a bit when you roll it out, as it will pick up flour during out the roll-out process.
Most standard recipes ask you to rest the dough before rolling it out. After trying the technique that Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson described in the Tartine cookbook, I’m a convert. Here are their directions, but their recipe uses slightly different proportions. Our recipe produces about half as much dough, so where you see “10 x 14 inches” – replace with “5 x 7 inches”:
“Shape the dough into a rectangle about 10 by 14 inches. Lightly dust the top with flour. Roll out the rectangle until ti is half again as large and then scrape the top, bottom, and sides together again to the original size and reroll. Repeat three or four times until you have a smooth and cohesive dough. You should have a neat rectangle measuring about 10 by 14 inches. Transfer the dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill well, about 1 hour.”
When the dough is chilling, you can, as Prueitt and Robertson suggest, prepare the fruit for the filling.
For this galette, I used four large Granny Smith apples, sliced very thin, with the skin still on, liberally sprinkled with dark brown sugar, and flavored with roughly a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.
Once the dough has finished resting, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the rectangle onto a well-floured surface. The Tartine cookbook instructs us to orient the dough with the bottom corner pointing towards us, like a “diamond.” Turn the dough as you flatten it out with a rolling pin, taking care to roll away from the center of the diamond. and the square will eventually become a circle. I didn’t bother with that – I just rolled it out into a rough circle. The dough should be roughly 1/8 of an inch thick. Chill the dough circle for about 10-15 minutes, and then you can fill it and fold the edges over the filling, folding over the excess pieces (“pleating” them) so that the excess dough forms a slight “lip” over the fruit. (See the photograph below for an illustration.)
Finish your galette by brushing the top of the crust with an egg wash (take one egg yolk, and whisk with 1 tablespoon of heavy cream), and then sprinkling the egg wash with granulated sugar.
Check your galette after about 45 minutes. The egg wash should begin to brown and develop a beautiful, almost caramel-like sheen. Depending on the fruit, your galette will take between 45 and 60 minutes to complete. If it seems like it is baking too quickly, reduce the heat to 350 degrees. (Otherwise, the fruit may burn -the way that some of the apples in the top layer of my galette burned just a bit. I picked the burnt ones off and the rest of the filling was still delicious. And of coures – reality is imperfect.)
Cool for 10-15 minutes, and then serve--a la mode!
