Blueberry Galette
(with almond option)
makes 1 giant galette (the size of a pie, but flat)
Galette dough
Take a large piece of saran wrap...
and place on half of the sheet 1 cup (227 g) of
cool room temperature unsalted butter. fold the
other half of the saran over the butter and then
smoosh the butter covered in saran with the
palm of your hand to flatten it to 1/8”-1/4” thick
(alternatively if your butter is coming from he
fridge smush it with a rolling pin instead of your
palm.) place the butter sheet in the freezer for at
least 10 minutes to freeze.
in the meantime:
in the meantime:
Grab a measuring cup...
or a small bowl
or a small bowl
measure in somewhere between 1/3-1/2 cup
(100 g) whole milk and 3/4 teaspoon kosher
salt (if doing the almond version feel free to add
up to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.) mix
together to dissolve salt crystals and then place
in the fridge to chill while you prepare the dough.
Sift onto your kitchen counter...
1 1/4 cups (155 g) AP flour
or for the almond option, 1 cup (124 g) AP flour and 1/2 cup (50 g) of almond flour (or make almond flour by grinding sliced or slivered almonds in a food processor or coffee grinder with some of your flour to make a fine powder.)
add in 1 1/4 cups (150 g) cake flour (buy unbleached if you can, T45 flour for Europeans.) then take your butter sheet out of the freezer and break the butter into shards tossing the pieces directly into your flour pile (anywhere from 1-2 inch pieces is good, just wherever it naturally breaks.) once finished toss the butter in the flour to coat completely. Then grab about 1/6th of the butter and flour mixture and put it on the counter directly in front of you, using a rolling pin roll the butter into the flour to create thin sheets of butter (these thin sheets of butter = flakey crust.) once all the butter in this pile is in thin sheets push this pile to the side and then grab another mound of butter/flour and repeat the rolling and setting aside until all the butter has been rolled into thin sheets.
bring your entire flour butter mixture back in front of you and create a well in the center, then pour in your chilled milk and salt mixture. toss the flour and butter around in the liquid to distribute it well. Then push the dough together the loosely formed square on your counter and push down on the top of the square of dough with the palm of your hand to pack it tightly.* Then cut the dough in half and stack one piece on top of the other — a lot of dry flour/butter pieces will fall off, in the process, don’t worry just throw it all on top. then press down on the top to flatten, and push in on the sides to pack in tightly. again, cut in half and put one piece on top of the other, less should fall off this time, but again add it to the top.
repeat this a number of times (6-9) until very few pieces of the dough (if any) fall off when you stack them, it is slightly sticky, and looks well layered.
then press the dough down so the dough is about 1” thick and wrap in saran (I re-use the same piece that covered the butter in the freezer.) and place the dough in the fridge for at least 45 minutes, and up to a day (any longer and it should be kept in the freezer.)
or for the almond option, 1 cup (124 g) AP flour and 1/2 cup (50 g) of almond flour (or make almond flour by grinding sliced or slivered almonds in a food processor or coffee grinder with some of your flour to make a fine powder.)
add in 1 1/4 cups (150 g) cake flour (buy unbleached if you can, T45 flour for Europeans.) then take your butter sheet out of the freezer and break the butter into shards tossing the pieces directly into your flour pile (anywhere from 1-2 inch pieces is good, just wherever it naturally breaks.) once finished toss the butter in the flour to coat completely. Then grab about 1/6th of the butter and flour mixture and put it on the counter directly in front of you, using a rolling pin roll the butter into the flour to create thin sheets of butter (these thin sheets of butter = flakey crust.) once all the butter in this pile is in thin sheets push this pile to the side and then grab another mound of butter/flour and repeat the rolling and setting aside until all the butter has been rolled into thin sheets.
bring your entire flour butter mixture back in front of you and create a well in the center, then pour in your chilled milk and salt mixture. toss the flour and butter around in the liquid to distribute it well. Then push the dough together the loosely formed square on your counter and push down on the top of the square of dough with the palm of your hand to pack it tightly.* Then cut the dough in half and stack one piece on top of the other — a lot of dry flour/butter pieces will fall off, in the process, don’t worry just throw it all on top. then press down on the top to flatten, and push in on the sides to pack in tightly. again, cut in half and put one piece on top of the other, less should fall off this time, but again add it to the top.
repeat this a number of times (6-9) until very few pieces of the dough (if any) fall off when you stack them, it is slightly sticky, and looks well layered.
then press the dough down so the dough is about 1” thick and wrap in saran (I re-use the same piece that covered the butter in the freezer.) and place the dough in the fridge for at least 45 minutes, and up to a day (any longer and it should be kept in the freezer.)
Blueberry filling
Take a large bowl...
and pour in 6 cups (about 2 lbs or 900 g)
of washed and dried blueberries, add in
1/4 cup (50 g) brown sugar, 1/4 cup (50
g) white sugar, juice (and zest if you
want) of 1/2 lemon, 1/2-3/4 a teaspoon of
cinnamon (this ups the blueberry flavor
but won’t taste like cinnamon in this small
of a quantity), 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
or vanilla bean paste, and a 1/2
teaspoon kosher salt. mix all together
until well distributed, then add in 3
tablespoons (22.5 g) of cornstarch. mix
until thoroughly combined and then set the
mixture aside as you roll out the dough.
Assembly
Pre-heat oven...
to 425-450 degrees. if you have a pizza stone or baking steel adjust so that it
is on the second highest rung in your oven, or move one oven rack to the top
rung, and the other to the bottom rung.
Take a sheet of parchment ...
paper large enough to fit on your sheet tray
paper large enough to fit on your sheet tray
and grab a rolling pin and some flour for dusting. place your sheet of
parchment paper on your countertop and dust the top of it with some flour.
unwrap your dough from the saran and place in the middle of the flour-
dusted parchment and dust some more flour on top. begin rolling out the
dough (from middle to edges - not one end to the other), constantly picking it up off the parchment and rotating it to be sure
that it isn’t sticking.
about half way through you want to flip the dough over adding more flour to both sides. at this point stop picking up the dough and flipping it, it is more likely to crack, just roll it out until the dough is somewhere between 1/4”-1/8” thick (I did 1/8” because I wanted to make a giant tart, but do whatever you feel more comfortable with/like — if you make it on the thicker side the flakes will be more prominent.) then taking a cake pan/large bowl/tart ring, outline a circle or oval in the center of your dough with 2”-3” left of dough outside of the ring (this will serve as a guide for where to place your blueberries.)
using kitchen scissors you can cut the outermost edges of the dough off (about 1/8”-1/4”,) this will show more flake when it is done baking if making the almond dough, at this point you can lift up the edges of the tart dough (just past the circle you just outlined) folding towards the center. where the edges of the dough had just been on your countertop scatter 1/4-1/3 cup (25-35 g) slivered or sliced almonds, then unfold the dough from the middle and place your dough edges on top of the almonds. using your rolling pin gently press the dough into the almonds so that they stick to the dough
put 1 teaspoon of cournstarch on the bottom of the galette dough and spread it across (I usually forget this step and it’s always fine, just a little saucier.) pour the blueberries into your outlined circle in the center of your dough, keeping the blueberries thicker in the middle than at the edges.
fold the edges of the tart dough over the blueberries decoratively overlapping them, then brush the dough with cream (or milk), making sure to get into every crevice. if you did not use almonds to decorate, sprinkle the edges with raw sugar (also known as natural brown sugar, turbinado sugar, or sanding sugar.)
then transfer the tart to your sheet tray, just pull the parchment quickly and deliberately onto a rimless tray for a smooth transfer, if you don’t have a rimless sheet tray do this off the edge of your counter top for a smoother transfer, again be quick and deliberate for best results (or pull onto the pizza peel and then pull again onto your baking hseet if you are scared.)
place the whole galette in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking.
about half way through you want to flip the dough over adding more flour to both sides. at this point stop picking up the dough and flipping it, it is more likely to crack, just roll it out until the dough is somewhere between 1/4”-1/8” thick (I did 1/8” because I wanted to make a giant tart, but do whatever you feel more comfortable with/like — if you make it on the thicker side the flakes will be more prominent.) then taking a cake pan/large bowl/tart ring, outline a circle or oval in the center of your dough with 2”-3” left of dough outside of the ring (this will serve as a guide for where to place your blueberries.)
using kitchen scissors you can cut the outermost edges of the dough off (about 1/8”-1/4”,) this will show more flake when it is done baking if making the almond dough, at this point you can lift up the edges of the tart dough (just past the circle you just outlined) folding towards the center. where the edges of the dough had just been on your countertop scatter 1/4-1/3 cup (25-35 g) slivered or sliced almonds, then unfold the dough from the middle and place your dough edges on top of the almonds. using your rolling pin gently press the dough into the almonds so that they stick to the dough
put 1 teaspoon of cournstarch on the bottom of the galette dough and spread it across (I usually forget this step and it’s always fine, just a little saucier.) pour the blueberries into your outlined circle in the center of your dough, keeping the blueberries thicker in the middle than at the edges.
fold the edges of the tart dough over the blueberries decoratively overlapping them, then brush the dough with cream (or milk), making sure to get into every crevice. if you did not use almonds to decorate, sprinkle the edges with raw sugar (also known as natural brown sugar, turbinado sugar, or sanding sugar.)
then transfer the tart to your sheet tray, just pull the parchment quickly and deliberately onto a rimless tray for a smooth transfer, if you don’t have a rimless sheet tray do this off the edge of your counter top for a smoother transfer, again be quick and deliberate for best results (or pull onto the pizza peel and then pull again onto your baking hseet if you are scared.)
place the whole galette in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking.
Bake...
Once the dough is thoroughly chilled and hard. place the galette directly in
the oven (cold dough + hot oven = flakey crust). if you put a baking stone in
your oven, place the tray directly on it, if you didn’t place in the uppermost
level. set a timer for 18 minutes, when the timer goes off rotate the galette
180 degrees so it bakes evenly (if you are baking without a stone or steel
move the tart to the lowest rack for the rest of the bake at this point too). in
another 25-30 minutes it should be bronzed and bubbly. remove from the
oven and let cool 15 minutes (preferably 30 minutes) before removing from
the tray and serving
* the tool I am using in the video to help shape the dough is called a bench scraper. it is without a doubt my most used kitchen tool under $10, I cannot express how essential this tool is to all my pastry and bread endeavours. this bench scraper is my second favorite of the four I own (the one you see in the video is my absolute favorite but I got it at a dollar store and have not been able to find online)
* the tool I am using in the video to help shape the dough is called a bench scraper. it is without a doubt my most used kitchen tool under $10, I cannot express how essential this tool is to all my pastry and bread endeavours. this bench scraper is my second favorite of the four I own (the one you see in the video is my absolute favorite but I got it at a dollar store and have not been able to find online)
Full length tutorial