Blueberry Lemon Galette

This past weekend, I went fruit picking with friends at a pick your own orchard. Apples, which are the usual fare at this location, aren't quite in season yet, but a few other fruits and veggies were around to be picked. The raspberries and blackberries were pretty picked through, but a few gems could be found in the blueberries. Most of the berries were a little tart for my taste, so I knew they were destined for a dessert of some sort. I also got peaches, which are a little on the unripe side, so they'll probably be destined for a cooking transformation of some kind, as well.

Look at these delicious fruits! Somehow, they're just better when you pick them yourself. So, after perusing a few recipes, I decided on a blueberry lemon galette, a recipe from Fine Cooking. Now, I'm not much of a pastry chef; savory dinner items are more of my forte. (Ironic that my first post is a dessert, eh?) Therefore, I had no idea what the heck a galette was. However, a quick dash to Wikipedia tells me that it is a French term to describe freeform crusty cakes. This seems more like a pie, but who am I to argue? Either way, it looks delicious, and based on the amount of butter (11 tablespoons!!), how could it not be?

The first step is to make the dough. This can be made ahead and saved for up to 4 days, or you can make a big batch and freeze it for later galettes. 

Whenever I measure for baking, I always try to weigh it out, if I'm given the option, especially with things like flour. Because flour can get packed into a measuring cup, or it can be measured loosely, the amount of flour actually added to your dough can vary greatly. The density of flour also varies greatly between brands of flour, and can even vary bag to bag! Granted, this isn't a huge concern for a home baker, however for a commercial business, reproducibility is a big deal. Moral of the story - balances are rather cheap, and if you plan on doing a lot of baking, it is a must.

So, weigh out your flour, sugar and salt needed for the dough in a large bowl. If you had a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, as recommended in the recipe, you can use that on low to mix it. However, my stand mixer isn't that great and I felt that I did a better job mixing it with two forks. Once combined, add the butter, which is in 1/2 inch cubes. Mix it on low, until the dough stays together. Break up any large lumps of butter. The recipe I followed recommended that anything larger than pea sized be broken up, but I had a hard time getting them all, and you can just crush the chunks of butter later when you "knead" the dough.

Combine the egg yolk and milk in a small bowl, then add it to the dry ingredients. Mix it until the dough just comes together. The dough will still be crumbly, but now you can turn the dough out on a clean counter and work with it. Gently knead the dough until it comes together and the dough is pliable. This should take about 1 minute, and is why I put knead in quotes, since an actual bread or pasta dough would be kneaded for much longer. You just want everything to be combined evenly.

Look at that beautiful little ball of dough. I worked with mine on a baking mat, which is another wonderful addition to your kitchen if you plan on baking much. This is a very sticky dough, so it was much less painful on a material that is extremely non-stick. If you don't have one of these, parchment paper probably works, or you can just clean your counter afterwards. Now you can wrap your ball of dough in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, to let it rest. 

Many doughs are given a chance to rest, because the glutens will be too elastic, and the dough pulls back together when you try to roll it out. 

Now to make the filling! Make sure you wash your blueberries and pick through them well. I still had a few stems left on mine, since I picked them myself. That would not be an interesting addition to my galette. Once they're washed, put them in a large bowl. In the interest of conserving dishes (I HATE DISHES), I used the same bowl that had made the dough. I figured that it's all going into the same thing, and a little extra dough will just thicken up the filling. Can't hurt! 

So, toss your blueberries with 1/4 cup sugar. If your berries are on the tarter side, throw in up to 2 tbs of extra sugar. Then, add the lemon zest, honey, flour, and salt, then toss it together. 

After this, I removed the dough from the fridge and let it sit out for 5 minutes. I also turned on my oven at this point. Some bakers advocate preheating an oven for at least 30 minutes, but as my kitchen gets too hot simply from sauteing for 5 minutes, I preheat for as little time as possible. I've become an expert at finishing preps at the exact moment my oven is up to temperature. It's my super power. 

Once your dough has come to room temperature, you can roll it out. Again, I cannot advocate the baking mat more strongly here. You can roll it out on a lightly floured surface, but doughs really don't come much stickier than this one. My baking mat also conveniently has measurements along the side, so it wasn't difficult for me to measure a 13"x14" circle. I've included my rolling pin in the picture for reference for those of you who don't have a wonderful baking mat in your kitchen. Since you let your dough rest, you shouldn't have too much difficulty in rolling it out smoothly. Don't worry too much if it isn't a perfect circle, or if the ends tear, since it is going to be pleated, or folded onto itself. 

Next, dump your bowl of filling into the center of the dough. Fold the dough over the fruit, to about a 2 inch rim, pleating it as you go. If this seems confusing to you, look at my pictures below to get a good idea of what it should look like. 

Take your beaten egg and use a pastry brush to brush it on the dough. Strangely enough, I don't own a pastry brush. I know, I heavily advocate rather niche items like a balance and a baking mat, but I don't own a pastry brush. I can't explain it. Anyway, I kind of coated it onto the dough with a fork, which I also used to whisk it with. (I hate doing dishes.) 

After egg was applied to the dough, I sprinkled a little sugar onto it. Our cute little sugar pot came in very handy for sprinkling sugar on top.

Once done, it should look roughly like this. Now toss that puppy in the oven and try not to rip it out for the next 55 minutes. Take it out when golden brown, and attempt to let it cool on a wire rack. I admit, that's probably not possible. Once it has cooled, cut it into slices and serve it warm or at room temperature. 

Just look at it! 

All that deliciousness oozing out!!

As you can tell, I obviously did not wait until my galette had cooled before I cut into it, so it is a gooey, drippy, DELICIOUS mess. 

The rich, buttery crust blends perfectly with the sweet, slightly tart blueberry filling. I imagine it would pair nicely with vanilla ice cream, or a good whipped cream. I'll just have to "settle" for having it plain. A quick and easy recipe is below. I'm off to enjoy my slice (or two!) of galette!