Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are the perfect summer fruits to fill this galette. But don’t forget others such as apples, peaches and pears — you can use the dough as a base for a variety of delicious summer desserts.
Galette Dough
- 3 tbsp sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
- 1/3 cup (approximately) ice water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 7 tbsp 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; it 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.) 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 the 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 a 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.
Remove the dough from the processor, divide in half, and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.
The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a day or two, it it can be wrapped airtight and frozen for a month. Thaw, still wrapped, in the refrigerator.
The Galette
- ½ recipe Galette Dough, chilled
- 1 ½ cups mixed fresh berries (or cut-up peeled fruit)
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp honey (optional)
- 1 tbsp cold unsalted butter
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees 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 your 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 remaining 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. Slide a wide spatula or a small baking sheet under the galette and slide it onto the cooling rack. Serve warm or a t room temperature, cutting the tart with a pizza wheel or a sharp knife.
The galette is best eaten the day it is made.
Source: Baking with Julia, written by Dorie Greenspan, 1996 A La Carte Communications, Inc.
