I finally broke down and rented the movie Julie and Julia. Why did I wait so long? I think I have a bit of non-conformist in me. When the movie first came out, as a blogger, I was “supposed” to see it! Everyone was! It was being twittered and facebooked! It was content for many food bloggers! I have to admit, I’ve visited the Julie vs. Julia project, never to really be sucked in. I think it’s a lack of eye candy, of which I’m a huge fan of! But, I can appreciate her respect of Julia Child.
Years ago, my grandmother gave me the Baking with Julia Child , written by Dorie Greenspan. Talk about eye candy! Did you know in France, when one goes “window shopping” they say Lécher les Vitrines. Translated, this means to “lick the window”. Julia Child’s cookbook makes you want to do just that…”lick the page”!!!
I have been inspired to make a number of these page displayed beauties! I’ve made the baby gingerbread cakes, the rustic potato loaves and pita bread, but my favorite, the one that keeps me coming back, is the galette.
Julia Child’s galette recipe is one you MUST add to your recipe file or book. It is my go-to-easy-to-impress-always-delish recipe! I have made it with fresh strawberries and mint from my garden. I have used peaches and fresh lavender. I have done mixed berries with a hint of cinnamon. You could also use pear and cardamom or blueberries with fresh scraped vanilla bean.
This recipe is pretty easy and if you are intimidated by making fresh pie crust, this is a great place to start! It reminds me of an open faced, rustic, country pie. I usually divide the dough and make mini galettes to give each of my guests their own. (Sharing just sets the stage for the “gimmes” to come out!) Top with some fresh whipped cream and serve warm with a black cup of coffee!
Don’t you just want to “lick the window”?!!
Berry Galette
by Julia Child
Galette dough:
3 Tbls. sour cream (or yogurt or buttermilk)
1/3 C. ice water
1 C. all purpose flour
1/4 C. yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
7 Tbls. cold unsalted butter cut into 6 to 8 pieces
(Julia gives directions to make this dough by hand, but I have to tell you, if you can make friends with your food processor, you turn out a delicious galette and perfect a pie crust! These directions are for your food processor.)
Making dough: Stir the sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water together in a small bowl; set aside. Put the flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt in the work bowl of the processor fitted with the metal blade; pulse to combine. Drop the butter pieces into the bowl and pulse 8 to 10 times, or until the mixture is speckled with pieces of butter that vary in size from bread crumbs to peas. With the machine running, add the sour cream mixture and process just until the dough forms soft, moist curds.
Chilling dough: Remove the dough from the processor, divide in half and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.
Storing: The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a day or two or it can be wrapped airtight and frozen for a month. Thaw, still wrapped, in the refrigerator. It is convenient to roll the dough into rounds, place parchment between each round and freeze them wrapped in plastic; this way, you’ll need only about 20 minutes to defrost a round of dough at room temperature before it can be filled, folded into a galette and baked.
(this recipe yield two 8 in. galettes)
Berry Filling
3 C. mixed fresh berries (or cut up, peeled fruit…see ideas above!)
2 Tbls. plus 2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbls. honey
2 Tbls. cold unsalted butter
Assembling Galette
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Put the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll it into an 11 in. disc about 1/8 in. thick. Since the dough is soft, you’ll need to lift it now and then toss some more flour under it and over the top. Roll up the dough around your rolling pin and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
Spread half the berries over the dough leaving a 2 to 3 in. border. Sprinkle 1 Tbls. of sugar over the fruit and drizzle with 1 Tbls. honey. Cut the butter in slivers and scatter half of it on top of the fruit. Fold the uncovered border of dough up over the filling, allowing the dough to pleat as you lift it up and work your way around the galette. (As you go around folding, it will pleat naturally…go with it!) Dip a pastry brush in water, give the edge of the crust a light coating and then sprinkle the crust with 1 tsp. of sugar. Now, assemble the second galette in the same manner.
Baking Galette
Bake the galette for 35 to 40 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the galette rest on the sheet for 10 minutes. Slip a wide spatula under the galette and slide it onto the cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, cutting the tart with a pizza wheel.
This is best eaten the day it’s made!
