Peach Galette

Posted by ellenbkoopman on July 1, 2013 · 2 Comments 

Ode To My Pastry Blender

At about the same time as I was striking out on my own, our parents down-sized to a smaller house.  While this had some decidedly unfortunate consequences (our mother surreptitiously packing my car with all of my childhood possessions while I paid her a visit), it was also a boon to my kitchen supplies.  Our mom worked her way through the kitchen and passed along to me a variety of tools.  This is how I came to possess one of my all-time favorite kitchen implements: the humble pastry blender.

  

Growing up, I associated this tool with one thing: scones.  At some point, our mom came across a fantastic raisin scones recipe on the inside of a Land-o-Lakes butter package, and she would use this pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.  I love those scones, and I was honored when our mom so kindly offered to let me take the pastry blender off her hands.

 

At the time, I was somewhat hesitant to take a tool into my kitchen which I considered a one-trick pony.  However, I have found that I use it frequently – not only do I make my own variation of scones with its assistance (a post for another day), but I turn to the pastry blender for everything from slicing avocados to mashing potatoes.  For this post, I decided to bring the pastry blender back to its original purpose: a pie crust.

 

Annie has written about the practical and psychological challenges attendant to the craft of pie crusts when you grow up in a household where pie crusts are taken seriously.  [insert this link: https://threesisterscooking.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/steak-and-mushroom-pie/ ]  I decided to take my first steps into the art of the pie crusts in a forgiving setting: the galette.

 

Galettes are forgiving in that their “rustic” character gives the baker room to be messy and awkward with her pie crust.  In a galette, it is ok if the crust isn’t rolled out to paper thin.  It is ok if the crust isn’t a perfect circle.  It is ok if the crust has jagged edges.  It is the perfect exercise to practice simply working the flour, butter, and water together in the proper ratio so that the crust is neither too dry nor too sticky, without becoming distracted by the stress of rolling the crust out thinly and being gentle with the construction of a pie.

 

It seems that one can throw just about any fruit into a galette.  I chose peaches, because they happen to be one of my favorite summer fruits and because I happened to have a bowl full of peaches.  Credit goes to Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen (and to Freddie, for giving me her beautiful, entertaining, and yummy cookbook for my birthday) for her pie crust and Almond and Sweet Cherry Galette recipes for giving me a good starting point.

 

Peach Galette

Ingredients:

Crust

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces, kept very cold

¼ cup ice-cold water (I recommend placing a glass with a ¼ cup of water into a large bowl, and surrounding the glass with ice cubes)

 

Filling

¾ lb peaches, pitted and sliced into slivers (about 4 medium-sized peaches)

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon flour

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon butter

1 egg, beaten

 

Instructions:

Crust

• In a wide but shallow bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and salt together.

• With a pastry blender, cut the pieces of very cold butter into the dry ingredients until the pieces of butter are the size of small peas.

• Place the bowl in the freezer for five minutes (if you have the space) or the refrigerator for ten minutes to chill the mixture.

• Return the bowl to your work area, and drizzle the ice-cold water over the flour-butter mixture.

• Using a flexible spatula, gently stir the water into the flour-butter mixture until the water is absorbed.  Do not be alarmed if there is still a lot of dry flour-butter mixture remaining.

• If the bowl is shallow enough, keep the mixture in the bowl and work the flour-butter-water mixture by hand into a ball.  Work quickly so as to not allow the dough to get too warm.  If the bowl is too deep for you to knead the dough in the bowl, turn the contents of the bowl onto a clean, dry work-surface and knead it there.  Do not flour the work-surface before turning the flour-butter-water mixture out onto it.

• Once you have kneaded the dough into a bowl, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

 

Filling

• Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.

• In a medium-sized bowl, sprinkle the flour and sugar over the sliced peaches.  Gently mix the contents to distribute the flour and sugar.

• Drizzle the vanilla over the peaches.  Gently mix.

• Lightly flour a clean, dry work-surface and place the unwrapped dough upon it.  Roll the dough out to a 12-inch round.

• Transfer the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

• Spread the peach mixture out over the dough, leaving a two inch wide ring of dough around the edge.

• Cut the butter into small pieces and distribute the pieces across the top of the peach filling.

• Gently fold the outer edge of the dough up over the outer edge of the filling, creating pleats as you go by allowing the edge of the dough to fold over itself.

• Brush the beaten egg over the folded crust.

• Bake the galette for a total of 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden.  Take care to turn the baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through to ensure even baking.

• Once the galette is baked, remove from the oven, and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.  Serve alone, or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Filed under Desserts, Uncategorized · Tagged with Butter, Flour, Fruit, Galette, Kitchen, Pastry blender, Peach, Pie, Scone, Smitten Kitchen