stone fruit galettes

well, the galettes turned out well. the weather became completely charming, 70s and sunny. a happy ending. 

of course the galettes, (which i made partly because i already had the pizza stone and french rolling pin out and partly because i had too many apricots on the counter top and partly because it rained torrentially at the end of last week) were eaten as quickly as they were made. here is my recipe as promised. i have adapted it from two extraordinary american female practitioners in the culinary arts, madame julia child and ms. alice waters, who have two very different recipes, i have combined them to become what i hope is the best of both, although in truth, this recipe owes far more to julia. and of course, being me, the amounts and the ingredients have been altered from the originals. (just can't leave a recipe alone, apologies to both).

what to fill your galette with? my favorites are the stone fruits, apricot, pluot, and plum, berries can be quite nice, especially raspberry and blackberry. or the trusty standbys: pear and apple. this simple, easy and sturdy dough can go in a tart pan or as a rustic free form tart with folded over edges.

galette dough 

adapted from julia childs baking with julia 

and alice waters chez panisse fruit

makes enough for 2 galettes

3 TBSP buttermilk (or sour cream)

1/3 cup ice water (more or less)

1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 TBSP cold unsalted butter (cut into 10 slices) 

place the flour cornmeal sugar and salt in the food processor fitted with the plastic dough blade. pulse briefly. add in the butter pieces. pulse until lightly combined and the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas.

mix the ice water and buttermilk (or sour cream) together in a small cup or bowl.  turn the processor back on and while it is running add the ice water/dairy mixture  through the feed tube and keep the machine running just until the dough comes together in large moist hunks.

divide the dough in half. form each half into an attractively shaped disk. wrap in waxed paper and chill for an hour or more. when you are ready, bring out the dough and let it rest on the counter for 20 minutes or so before you roll it out. important also to rap the disk firmly all along its surface several times with the rolling pin before you roll it out. this crucial step, for some reason unbeknownst to me, softens it, smooths it, and makes the dough behave beautifully as you roll it out (i can only speculate that this is perhaps because you have shown the frequently stubborn dough you won't take no for an answer). 

filling and baking fruit galettes

preheat oven to 400 degrees

 if you are making a free-form galette, you can use a pizza or baking stone here with great results. simply roll the tart out on some parchment, fill and slide onto the stone. if using a tart pan (i like ceramic best) use the same 400 degree oven with no stone.

roll the dough out to a circle about 11 inches wide. i roll it out directly on parchment paper and then transfer it on the paper to the baking stone. if i am using a tart pan, i fold it into quarters and transfer it that way. sculpting and repairing any cracks in the tart pan. you'll need about 1.5 to 2 cups of fruit for each galette. i lay the fruit in roughly concentric circles starting at the outside and working my way in, if apples or pears, they should overlap as the fruit shrinks quite a bit during baking. sprinkle about 2 TBSP of sugar on the fruit and crust before it goes into the oven. the biggest challenge is to prevent the juice from the fruit running out all over the baking sheet or baking stone. please make sure the dough has no cracks in it. once you've got that all sorted out, bake for 35 minutes approximately. (wide variation here depending on oven, as little as 25 to as much as 50 minutes could be required), fruit should bubble beautifully and crust should be lightly browned. if you know your oven, you can probably gauge the correct amount of time. mine requires 30 minutes.

this maybe seems like a lot of trouble, but it really isn't. the dough comes together in about 10 minutes. then you get to put it away and bring it out when you are ready. the rolling and filling takes maybe 15 minutes. and the eating, well, very little time at all. r and the kids love a large scoop of french vanilla ice cream with theirs. sweetens things up a bit.