This galette has escaped the camera now five times. First I made it with strawberries. Then with plums, then with strawberries and peaches, then with blueberries, then with peaches alone, and just this weekend with apricots. Actually, make that six times that this galette has been eaten before I managed to photograph it. I finish baking it in the evening usually, and then intend to take a picture the next morning. Only by morning, it’s nearly half gone, and then I eat a slice for breakfast, and suddenly 40% of a galette seems so much less photogenic than a whole galette full of fruit and shining with sugar warm from the oven. So I vow to make another one, and this time, I promise myself, I’ll photograph it properly to share it with you.
I haven’t meant to hold out on you. This recipe seems to get better each time I make it, and now I’ve hit a groove with the crust. It’s so light and flaky that I marvel that I was the one to actually make it. The slice I ate last weekend had a fold of crust stacked with thin papery layers that I would have easily believed came from a scientifically engineered toaster strudel. Only the layers didn’t taste like paper, instead they instantly dissolved into an airy memory of butter and sugar and everything delicious. So forgive me for not getting you this recipe sooner. I meant to, I tried to, it’s here now! Would you believe I made and ate six galettes just for you? For the sake of quality control? Yes, quality control. Let’s go with that.
Summer Fruit Galette (adapted just barely from Smitten Kitchen)
Deb does some fancy folding with this recipe on her blog, somehow managing to come out with galettes that have fruit in the shape of stars. While making this recipe with a friend, I described my technique as “making a bed the lazy way, just fold everything into the center and go with it.” I’ve made this with all the fruit I’ve found in the farmers’ market this summer. You may have to adjust the fruit quantities as volumetric measurements aren’t perfect (2 cups of apricot slices is very different from 2 cups of blueberries). This recipe is informal and very forgiving. Roll out the crust, pile fruit in the center, fold in edges, bake, and eat.
For the Crust
- 1 1/14 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 stick (8 tbsps) cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes (described below)
- 1/4 cup ricotta cheese mixed with 3 tbsp cold water
For the Fruit Filling
- 2 cups fruit, chopped into uniform pieces
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- pinch of salt
- Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt for the crust in a large bowl.
- Remove the butter from the fridge, and using a large knife, cut it into thirds the long way (so you now have three pieces of butter all the same length as the original stick). Rotate the stick 90 degrees and again cut it into thirds the long way. Now you should have a stick of butter made up of 3×3 long skinny sticks of butter. Cut off thin slices, and drop each square of butter (made up of 9 little cubes) into your flour mixture.
- Using a pasty cutter or two butter knives, cut in the butter until all the butter pieces are of a small uniform size. Because of the butter cutting method in step 2, this should not take you very long.
- In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese with 3 tablespoons of cold water.
- Add the ricotta mixture to the flour and butter mixture and stir to combine.
- Using your hands, gently gather the mixture into a loose ball, and drop that ball onto a piece of handiwrap. Wrap the handiwrap into a tight ball, and then press down on the dough to form a flat disk. Refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Chop your fruit and mix together the ingredients for the fruit filling in a medium mixing bowl.
- Flour the counter and roll out the dough into a large circle (about 12-14” diameter)
- . Fold the dough circle into quarters and transfer it to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Unfold the pastry dough back into a circle.
- Pour the fruit filling into the center of the pastry dough and fold in the edges to cover the fruit filling.
- Bake at 400 degrees for ~30 minutes or until the pastry dough is golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbly.
