Berry Galette with Cornmeal Crust

04Jul09

Happy fourth of July!  I served up this galette only a few hours ago at a backyard bbq with some vanilla bean ice cream and it was delicious.  The recipe calls for any combo of berries except for strawberries.  I used raspberries, blueberries and blackberries as I was trying to keep it patriotic looking.

I think a galette is a pie for lazy busy people.  It’s hard for me to spend so much time slaving away in the kitchen when the sun is shining.  These sunny days are so rare in D.C. that the last thing I want to do is bake on the weekends!

I like this cornmeal crust because it gives the dough a little extra “crunch”.  You can use this dough with any kind of fruit filling and I imagine it’s really delicious in the fall with super tart apples and cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.  Again, like an apple pie, but 70% less of the work.

Berry Galette with Cornmeal Crust

Source: Baking with Julia, by Dori Greenspan

Ingredients:

Galette Dough:
3 tablespoons sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
1/3 cup (approximately) ice water
1 cup ap flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

Berry Filling:
1 1/2 cups mixed fresh berries
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1 tablespopon cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon turbinado sugar

Directions:

To make the dough:
1. Stir the sour cream buttermilk and ice water in a small bowl and set aside (I stored in the fridge to keep super cold).
2. Put flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt in a large bowl and stir with a fork to mix.
3. Grate butter into flour mixture. This is a great trick for those of you who don’t have a pastry blender. I know I don’t have room for that in my tiny kitchen. But you can certainly cut the cold butter into pieces and use that. Or pulse this all together in a food processor. My mini prep can’t handle that.
4. Sprinkle the cold sour cream buttermilk mixture over the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time. I did not use the whole mixture, it felt moist enough to me after 5 additions. With your hands, gather the curds of dough together, do not overwork.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.

Put together the galette:
1. Preheat the oven to 400.  Roll out HALF the galette dough onto a lightly floured surface into an 11 inch circle that is about 1/8 inch thick.
2. Roll the dough around your rolling pin and transfer to a prepared baking sheet.
3. Sprinkle the berries over the dough, leaving a 2 to 3 inch border. Sprinkle the white sugar over the fruit and drizzle the honey. Cut the butter into slivers and scatter it on top of the fruit.
4. Fold the uncovered border of dough over the filling, allowing the dough to pleat as you lift it up and work your way around.
5. Dip a pastry brush in water, give the edge of the crust a light coating and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
6. 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 rest for 10 minutes. Slide off baking sheet and let it cool on the cooling rack.

Filed under: Fruit, Pies   |  1 Comment
Tags: 4th of July, berry galette, Julia Child