If you have an abundance of perfectly ripe stone fruit, like apricots, plums, or peaches,
there is really no better dessert than a galette, and today we are going to make one.
I’ll skip making the dough in this video because we just made it for the tomato tart.
You don’t have to use my dough. You can use any pie dough, but if you need a good
recipe, it’s in the description below. Make sure you make it at least 1 day in advance
so that it’s thoroughly chilled.
I have 840g of apricots here. Let’s cut them in half, remove the pits and cut each
half into 2-3 wedges depending on the size of your apricots. Put them into a medium pot.
Sprinkle with a little cinnamon. I am not a huge cinnamon fan, so I like just a pinch.
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract or paste and 75 grams of granulated sugar. That’s a good
amount for apricots and plums, but for peaches and nectarines, I’d use only 50g or so because
they are so sweet. Give it all a thorough mix. Oops, I forgot the lemon. Just a tiny
squirt since we are dealing with apricots and they are plenty tart on their own. For
peaches, you’d want a bigger squirt. Mix it all up and let them sit at room temperature
for at least 45 minutes and up to several hours. Do not cook them. The reason we are
letting them sit is to draw out their juice. Cooking would make them too soft.
To roll out the dough, place it on a well floured surface, sprinkle with flour and bang
it from one side to another. Rotate 90 degrees and bang again. Keep rotating and banging,
being careful to keep the thickness of the dough even. This makes the butter pliable
and rollable even though it’s completely cold. Letting pie dough warm up before rolling
can result in very sticky dough, so I prefer to work with it straight from the fridge.
If you end up with cracks on the edges, squeeze them with your hands. The sooner you fix the
cracks, the less problems you’ll have later.
When you have a disk that is about ⅔ of an inch thick, you can start rolling. After
every single roll, rotate the dough. This accomplishes 2 things. It keeps the dough
even and it warns you of sticking before the situation is hopeless. Keep rolling and rotating
and don’t be afraid of adding flour. This flour is on the outside of the dough. It won’t
make it tough. If you encounter sticking, unstick your dough with a pastry scraper,
move it to the side and re-flour your counter. Once the dough gets big enough, you won’t
be able to cover all the territory with one roll. You’ll need 2-3 rolls before rotating
the dough.
When your dough is about ⅛ of an inch thick, thin out the edges, by rolling them pretty
aggressively with your rolling pin. The reason I want them thinner is that after we fold
them, we’ll end up with a triple layer of dough in parts of a galette, and I don’t
want those parts to feel too doughy. This thinning out will likely glue your dough to
the counter, but you can easily unstick it with a pastry scraper. Fold it in half, brush
off excess flour. Fold in half again and brush on both sides. Transfer to a parchment lined
baking sheet and if you have time chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. Though
baking it right away is fine too if your kitchen is not too hot. 20 minutes before you plan
to bake, preheat the oven to 400F and place the racks in the top and bottom thirds.
If your dough was in the fridge for a while, it might stiffen, like this. Make sure you
let it sit at room temperature until it’s pliable. It will only take 5 minutes or so.
If you try to fold stiff dough it will break and that’s the end of your galette.
Strain your fruit through a colander or strainer into a bowl. Do not discard the juice. We’ll
make a glaze out of it to use on top of our tart. Sprinkle the dough with about a tablespoon
of sugar leaving a 2 inch border. Dump the fruit in the middle. Fold the edges so that
the fruit is partially covered.
That’s what’s so great about galettes. They have the juiciness of a pie, but the
fruit caramelization of a tart. Keep one hand inside the dough so that you can pinch the
folds together. If you don’t pinch the dough together, all those folds will come undone
in the oven. You know, you don’t really need the whole hand under the dough, even
one finger will do. As long as you can pinch the folds together, you’ll be fine. Brush
the dough with melted butter (about 1 Tbsp) and sprinkle with sugar all over. Both the
dough and the fruit. You’ll need about 1 Tbsp of sugar. People often ask me why I use
melted butter and not an egg wash. I feel that an egg wash makes the top of the dough
unpleasantly tough, so I prefer butter.
Place the galette in the bottom third of the oven for 20 minutes or until the dough starts
to look set and just beginning to brown, like this. When you are at this stage, it’s time
to make the syrup. Keep your galette in the oven. The syrup will only take 5 minutes and
you do not want to make it in advance. It needs to be used immediately like caramel
or it will solidify. Pour all fruit juices into the pot you used for your fruit and set
over high heat. Boil until the mixture turns syrupy. Stir in 1 Tbsp of apricot or plum
preserve if you have it. I always have some on hand, but I wouldn’t buy it just for
this dish. Boil the juices a bit more until they feel very sticky. Obviously don’t touch
them or taste them. You’ll get a horrible burn. Just go by the look. Get the galette
out of the oven, pour the syrup evenly all over the fruit. This will help the top become
beautifully caramelized and it will give your tart a more intense flavor. Place it back
in the oven, but this time in the upper third. The closer you are to the top wall, the more
color you’ll get on the fruit. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the fruit and
dough are deeply brown. As always, all ovens are different, so you might need to adjust
the time and temperature for your oven.
When you first get the galette out, it will be very bubbly, but as it cools, it will settle.
Cool for at least 30 minutes and serve. It’s good at room temperature and can also be rewarmed
for about 10 minutes in a 350F oven.
I like to serve mine with creme fraiche. Hope this technique will help you put all that
fabulous summer fruit to good use. If you are looking for really fun fruit combinations.
Try apricots and cherries or peaches and blueberries or raspberries. This is a very flexible dessert.
As always, the recipe is in the description below.
Here are more very detailed culinary tutorials for you to check out and if you are ever in
the Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.