Dorie Greenspan/ Fruit/ my favorites/ Sweet

Summer Galette | Fall Apple Galette

Summer galette puts a smile on my face for the wide variety of juicy and delicious fruits I can use in it. This is the project at Tuesday with Dorie this month. You are welcome to join in for the fun.

The rustic look of the galette is appealing. It is easy to put together. No fitting is necessary. An open-face free-form galette is simple, easy to roll out and crisp and light to bake. It marks the easy pleasure of summer living. I like the idea of baking galettes using different summer fruits as often as I can.

This pie dough is not sweet and can be used for savory tarts as well as for desserts. A real winner. It is a versatile dough that I have used a few times before.

A pinch of salt, one to two tablespoons of sugar and one to one-and-a-half cups of all-purpose flour are mixed together first. Then cut in one stick of cold butter. Drizzle in few tablespoons of ice water until the dough comes together. Roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper. Some resting time in the fridge is all it takes to get the galette dough ready for the fillings.

I used red plums, nectarines and figs for this summer galette. (When fresh figs are in season, I use them in everything. I love figs.) Almost any summer stone fruits works well in a galette. I did not use blueberries as Dorie has suggested. But it’s a splendid idea to add raspberries, blueberries or blackberries in a summer galette.

When summer season winds down, an apple galette is just as good as any. I’m already eyeing the fall galette recipe with black grapes, Italian purple plums and figs in Baking with Chez Moi. A galette for every season, really cool!

Plum, nectarine and fig galette

Print Recipe

Galette Dough

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (204 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons; 4 ounces; 113 grams) very cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces (frozen butter is good here)
1/4 cup ice water

Instructions

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut into the flour. At first you’ll have a mixture that looks like coarse meal and then, as you pulse more, you’ll get small flake-size pieces and some larger pea-size pieces too. Add a little of the ice water and pulse, add some more, pulse and continue until all of the water is in. Now work in longer pulses, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl if needed, until you have a dough that forms nice bumpy curds that hold together when you pinch them. Just before you reach this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface.

To incorporate the butter more evenly and to catch any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing, separate small amounts of dough from the pile and use the heel of your hand to smear each piece a few inches across the counter. In French this is called fraisage, and it’s the ideal way to finish blending a dough.

Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disk and put it between two large pieces of parchment paper. Roll the dough, while it’s still cool, into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Don’t worry about getting the exact size or about having the edges be perfect; when you construct the galette, the edges will be bunched up and pleated and they’ll only look prettier if they’re a bit ragged. The dough will be somewhat thick and that’s fine—you want to have a little heft for a free-form pastry.

Slide the rolled-out dough, still between the paper, onto a baking sheet or cutting board and freeze for at least 1 hour or refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (Well wrapped, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)

When you’re ready to use the dough, leave it on the counter for a few minutes, just so that it’s pliable enough to lift and fold without cracking.

Storing: The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or wrapped airtight and stored in the freezer for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, leave it on the counter to come to a workable texture and temperature.