Saturday, June 4, 2011

Mixed Berry Galette

Hi everyone!

This weekend I was lucky to be able to come home for the long weekend to spend some time with the family and take a short break from the end of quarter madness of college. As usual, I baked some delicious challah,


and since we were invited to a potluck dinner party last night I whipped up a few things to bring, most importantly: dessert!


Since fresh berries are definitely hitting their peak right now for vibrant, juicy flavor I knew I needed to incorporate them into this dessert. This galette is light and flavorful, allowing the crust to complement the fresh fruit while keeping the raspberries and blueberries the stars of the dish (although it would be easy to sub in almost any other fruit that is in season).
The crust was easy to put together with the help of my trusty food processor and was refrigerated for about 4 hours before being rolled out for this free-form tart. My recipe yielded two tarts, one slightly smaller and the other slightly larger but I'm sure you could use the dough to make one large-and-in-charge pastry.

If you need an addition to a summer potluck, I hope you'll keep this light and flavorful tart in mind!



Mixed Berry Galette

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 recipe Galette Dough , chilled
  • 1-1/2 cups mixed fresh berries (or cut-up peeled fruit)
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon honey (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
Directions:

  1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 remaining teaspoon of sugar.
  4. 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.
For the dough:

Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons yogurt
  • 1/3 cup ice water
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal (I substituted 1/4 cup flour)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 to 8 pieces
Directions:
  1. Stir the yogurt and 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.
  2. 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 yogurt mixture and process just until the dough forms soft, moist curds.
  3. 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.
  4. 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. You'll only need about 20 minutes to defrost a round of dough at room temperature before it can be filled, folded into a galette, and baked.

Happy Baking!
Jessica

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