Rosie Makes A Very Berry Galette.

What is a galette, you ask?
A galette is a French term referring to  various types
of round, flat, thin-crusted, free-form cakes of pastry.
 A galette can be sweet or savory.
Today, I'm going with sweet,
since I have fresh peaches, strawberries, and blueberries.

I thought the picture might get your attention.

First, the galette dough.
 3 TB buttermilk
 1/3 cup ice water
1 cup flour
1/4 yellow cornmeal
 1 tsp sugar
 1/2 tsp salt
7 TB cold unsalted butter, cut into maybe 10-12 pieces
 Stir the buttermilk and ice water together and set aside. Put flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a large bowl, and stir with a fork to mix. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl, and toss to coat with the flour. Using a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour. You do not want the butter pieces all the same size. Aim for pieces of butter that range in size from bread crumbs to small peas. The smaller pieces make the dough tender, the large ones will make it flaky. Sprinkle the buttermilk and water mixture over the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork to evenly distribute the liquid. The dough should be moist enough to stick together when pressed. You want a soft, malleable dough. Gather the dough together and form into a ball. Divide the dough in half and press each piece into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Combine ice water and buttermilk.
If you don't have buttermilk,
 you could substitute yogurt or sour cream.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt.
The cornmeal gives the dough a bit of a crunch
 and makes it strong enough to be rolled to extreme thinness
and crisp enough to stand up to soft and syrupy fillings.

Mix well.

Drop in the butter pieces and ...

... toss to coat.

Start working the butter pieces with a pastry blender.

You don't want a homogeneous mix.
 You want it to range from bread crumbs to peas.

Mix in buttermilk/water a tablespoon at a time.

Gather into a ball on a lightly floured surface.

Cut in half, form into flat disks, wrap in plastic,
and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

After a two hour rest (for the dough, not me),
I lightly floured my board and ...

... rolled the dough into about a 12-inch circle.
 When rolling the dough, lightly flour both sides
 and flip the dough over to roll out both sides.

When you have a scraggly circle of dough, roll it up with your pin and ...

... transfer it to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

I used two peaches, a handful of blueberries, and some strawberries -
 about 1 1/2 cups of fruit.
 Peeled soft fruits like peaches and apricots work well
or tart apples and sweet pears would make a nice combination.
 I'd go easy on the strawberries, since they're very watery,
 but the syrup they make is delicious.

Pile the fruits in the center of the dough, leaving a 2-3 inch border.

This is natural cane turbinado sugar, grown and cut in Maui, Hawaii. It is not bleached or over-processed. It is the result of slow boiling layer upon layer of high colored cane - allowing the golden crystals to retain their natural molasses. The natural molasses remaining in the crystals produces a distinctive taste and a natural golden color.

I sprinkled a tablespoon or so over the berries.

Drizzle about a tablespoon of honey over the fruit.

My mouth is watering as I type this.

Buttah makes everything bettah.

Next, fold the border of dough up over the filling,
allowing the dough to pleat as you lift it up
and work your way around the galette.
 I spooned on some apricot preserves for good measure.

Next, brush with water and ...

... give it a sprinkling of the turbinado.

Ready for a 400 degree oven.

Give it about 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp.
 Don't worry.
 I'm saving all that strawberry syrup.

Isn't this pretty?

I like using the turbinado sugar rather than white sugar.
It has a richer flavor and the crystals hold up while baking.

I poured the strawberry syrup back in.

All right.
It tastes ... OK.

Hmmm.

What's happening here?

My galette is shrinking before my very eyes!

In less than an hour, this is my galette.

Like I said, it was OK.
 Next, I'll be using the other disk of galette dough
to make a savory galette.
Stay tuned.

Rosie Makes Dessert - A Very Berry Galette.

Just a hint of things to come, boys. I have to string along Buckykatt and Mr. P. to get them to pay attention. Offer them a treat. Dangle a carrot. Whatever it takes.

OK, boys. Move along. Nothing to see here except delicious food. In honor of Ticky's visit to the Hawthorne's Humble Household, I am making a Very Berry Galette for dessert. First, my galette dough.

1 cup all purpose flour 1/4 yellow cornmeal 1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons creme fraiche 1/cup ice water 7 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces

First, I mixed the creme fraiche with the cold water.

Flour and cornmeal went into a bowl with the sugar and salt. The cornmeal gives this dough a bit of a crunch and also makes it crisp enough to stand up to fruity, syrupy fillings, and makes the dough sturdy enough to be rolled out very thinly.

Mix the dry ingredients with a fork.

I dropped the butter pieces, one at a time, into the flour mixture, working them in with a pastry blender. (I always place my individual butter pieces on the rim of the bowl and just pull them down as needed.

Work the butter into the flour mixture so that you have sizes of butter ranging from bread crumbs to small peas. The smaller pieces make the dough tender. The larger pieces make the dough flaky.

Next, I drizzled the creme fraiche/water mixture over the dough, 1 TB at a time, working with a fork to evenly distribute it.

I turned the dough out onto a floured board, worked it just a bit, adding flour, as needed, then cut it in half. I'll only be using 1 half tonight for dessert.

I pressed both pieces of dough into a disk, wrapped them in plastic, and refrigerated for at least 2 hours.

Fast forward to 3 hours later. Here's my galette dough on my lightly floured board. In the meantime, I've been making garlic toast, making spah-gee-ti sauce, making seasoned tortilla chips, and making the bean dip and the creme fraiche/cilantro/jalapeno dip, and baby sitting two dogs, not my own, when Daughter Hawthorne called. I'm currently interrupting your regularly scheduled programming to show you Daughter Hawthorne's lunch she thoughtfully phoned in on her way home from the beach. And yes, I've been well-trained. It was waiting for her when she walked in the door. I have pesto on the top left. Two pieces of toasted cheddar/jalapeno bread, one with melted Mozzarella cheese. Curly endive left over from the Italian Wedding Soup I made the other day. Roma tomato. First, I spread the pesto over the toast. And added the chicken from Friday night dinner, along with some sliced Roma tomatoes, and freshly ground salt and pepper. Curly endive crowned the tomatoes and the toast with the melted cheese was the icing on this sandwich. Dang. What number do I call to have a specially-prepared meal ready for me when I get home? Oh, and get this. Middle Hawthorne called home about this time to tell us his AC was busted at his Greensboro abode, on perhaps the hottest day of the year so far. But here's the kicker: Mr. Hawthorne answered the phone. First thing Middle H. says to his Daddy is "What are you doing?" That's the norm now for "Hello. How are you?" And Mr. Hawthorne has the absolute GALL to reply, "I'm fixing spaghetti right now." EXCUSE ME, Mr. Hawthorne, but you've been SITTING ON YOUR ASS since you got home. On the SOFA. Watching TV. I don't recall ANYONE in the kitchen FIXING SPAGHETTI except ME. Idiot. /End rant./ Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I rolled out the galette dough until I got a round about 11 inches diameter.

And here's where some of that $68+ went to at Harris Teeter. Beautiful strawberries, blueberries. raspberries, and blackberries.

I placed the fruit in the middle of the galette dough, leaving a 2-3 inch border and sprinkled a few tablespoons of sugar over top.

Next, I drizzled a few tablespoons of honey over top.

And added a few pats of butter.

I pulled up the edges, forming drapes in the dough.

Next, I brushed water over the pastry dough ...

... sprinkled with a few tablespoons of sugar ...

... and baked in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

This was really lovely.

Everybody got some.

Even me!

Here's what I got last time I made this. At least I got more/some this time.