Tuesdays with Dorie - Berry Galette (Peach and Strawberry Gooseberry Galette)

It is nice to be hosting “Tuesdays with Dorie” this week together with Lisa of Tomato Thymes. Every first and third Tuesday of each month, members of this online baking group take on the task of baking and reviewing one of the recipes chosen from the book “Baking with Julia” by Dorie Greenspan. This week we will both host the recipe for the Berry Galette on page 377, a recipe that was contributed by Flo Braker, author, teacher and baker extraordinaire, that David Lebovitz calls "my favorite baker in the world".

A Galette is a term used in French cuisine to designate a variety of flat, round and free-form cakes with different kinds of fillings. They can be open-faced with the edges of the crust turned in and folded around a delicious fruit filling such as the Berry Galette here, or, as with the famous Galettes des Rois, they are baked in a double-crust form with a nut filling. I always bake Galettes des Rois ("King Cake") on January 6th of each year and hide a porcelain figurine inside (see my post of February 4, 2012). The filling for the Fruit Galettes can be all kinds of different berries, peeled stone fruit, plums, pears or apples. Best to go with what is in season at the time you are making the Galette.

The first step for today´s recipe is, of course, the  preparation of the Galette Dough. It requires only a few ingredients. All you need is sour cream, flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, butter and some ice water. The dough can be made by hand or in a food processor. I always make my pie dough by hand, that is just the method I like best. The Galette Dough has to be chilled for a good two hours before it can be rolled out (personally, I believe overnight is even better). So there is plenty of time to prepare the fruit filling of your choice. I chose to make two different Galettes and hence doubled the recipe for the dough.

The recipe is enough for two small Galettes or a large one. Since I had a quite a few dessert testers all lined up and waiting, I opted for the larger version. For the first Galette I chose to use peeled ripe peaches for the filling. To the fruit I added homemade vanilla sugar (no honey) and finely chopped rosemary and dotted with ice-cold butter. Adding herbs to cakes, pies and cookies is delicious and adds another layer of flavor to baked goods but it also helps to reduce the abundant growth of herbs in my garden. While the first Galette was in the oven and I started to smell the wonderful mix of peaches with rosemary, I remembered the first cake I baked with a fruit-herb combination, it was a blueberry lemon-thyme cake and I entered the recipe in a national cake competition.

For the second Galette I chose to go for a gooseberry-strawberry version, a flavor combination I grew up with and still love, it reminds me of the jams that my grand-mother used to make. To that filling I also added the vanilla sugar and the ice-cold butter. I believe that gooseberries are a bit "under-appreciated" these days. While they can be eaten raw, they are wonderful in cakes and jams or even in savoury dishes such as chutneys. I was a bit hesitant at first to add strawberries to the Galette. But I decided to leave the strawberries whole and give this fruit combination a try as a filling for the Galettes. And I am glad that I did.

The addition of cornmeal to the dough gave the Galettes a nice, rich golden color and a bit of a crunch. The coarser the cornmeal that you use in this recipe, the more rustic the crust will be. The dough was very easy and came together in no time. But I found it to be somewhat on the wet side and, as I mentioned before,  it definitely needed to chill for at least two hours, or even longer. I had no fruit leakage problem and the filling set up nicely but only after the Galette had time to rest for a while, just like a regular pie.

The taste testers all loved these Galettes. They liked both versions and enjoyed them plain or with lightly whipped cream to which I added some crème fraîche. The Peach-Rosemary Galette had just the right sweetness. It was filled with lots of ripe summer peaches and the rosemary added a nice aromatic touch. The  taste of the Gooseberry-Strawberry Galette transported me right back to those days in summer that I spent at my grand-mother`s house, enjoying a slice of bread slathered with her gooseberry-strawberry jam. The taste of the sweet strawberries pairs ever so nicely with the tartness of the gooseberries. Just be careful not to obverbake. The strawberries should still be bright red and juicy and the gooseberries should just "collapse" ever so slightly.

 I thought that both Galettes made wonderful picnic fare and we took them along to our family outing. They both held their shape quite nicely, I even manged to transfer them to some vintage pie pans for picture taking.

Since it is still summer/vacation time we decide to take our picnic fare to Maria Laach Abbey, a Benedictine abbey with vast picnic grounds and gardens.



It is one of my favorite places to visit and not a long drive from our home. The abbey structure dates from between 1093 and 1177. Today, the well-preserved basilica with its six towers is considered to be one of the most beautiful Romanesque buildings in Germany. It is siuated on the shores of a volcanic lake and just a few miles away from the Rhine river.



The Benedictine Monks that live in Maria Laach run a bookstore, a nursery, and an orchard. While visiting, you can admire their ornamental blacksmith works of art and the amazing sculptures or visit their bell foundry. They run a store where you can buy honey, fruit, jams, jellies and a lot of other wonderful products created with produce that grows on the Abbey`s grounds.



It is an amazing place to visit and although I felt a bit awkward when taking the picture of my Peach-Rosemary Galette in front of my favorite fountain, the Lion´s Fountain in the Abbey´s so-called "paradise" (courtyard with a peristyle), it still felt like there was no place better suited than this to take a picture for my blog on such a special occasion.

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 (page 371), chilled

1 ½ 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°F. 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 remainig 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.

Galette Dough

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-form 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. Since it is equally good with sweet and savory fillings, you might make the Cheese and Tomato Galette (page 429) to start a meal and the Berry Galette (page 377) to finish one.

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.)

Chilling the Dough
Turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it in half. Press each piece of dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

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
Remove the dough from the 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.

"J'aime la galette, savez-vous comment ? Quand elle est bien faite, avec du beurre dedans.
Tralalala (...) Puis avec de la pâte Puis avec des oeufs Puis avec des amandes"

 ("I like galette, do you know how? When it is made well, with butter inside. And with dough And with eggs And with almonds"), 
French Children´s Song, entitled "J´aime la Galette"

To see how fantastic all the summery Galettes from the other talented members of the Baking with Dorie Group turned out, please click here!

For more information on the Maria Laach Abbey, go to www.maria-laach.de