Easiest pie you will ever make! Seriously, if you have never made a pie before, or just simply suck at baking, galette me tell you, you need to try this recipe! Sorry for the pun, but I had to! ?
When I was little, my mother had me involved in 4-H cooking classes. I remember one of the competitions envolved creating a recipe book that was to be judged. Back then, in home printers and computers were just becoming popular and you had a selection of about 1000 preloaded jpeg images to choose from. I filled the recipe pages with pixelated pictures, hole punched the pages and placed them in a folder to be judged. The judge had one critique that I, to this day, remember. Why didn’t you place each of the pages into a sleeve to protect it? You turn the page with a wet hand and you will ruin it! Good, solid advice. Quite honestly, each recipe I write here, is a way to protect my ideas and notes from being lost. I truly look back on my own recipes at times.
As I write this, my oldest child lay on my lap, sound asleep, holding tight to my arm as if I might try to escape. It is so cute that it makes me reflect on my life and its many blessings. I am very grateful for the life I have been blessed with and the little humans I have been tasked with taking care of.
Well, now that I’ve gone completely off topic, let’s get back to it. Galette!
Here’s what you need:
Crust:
5 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup four
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar (additional for dusting)
2 tablespoons water
1 Egg white for brushing onto the outer crust.
Filling:
1 cup fresh fruit
1 tablespoon sugar
Prep your fruit first. If you have strawberries or peaches, thinly slice them and place your fruit in a bowl with a tablespoon of sugar, then set it aside while you make the crust. For the crust, pour one cup of flour out on a clean counter top. Cut in your cold butter. Sprinkle the sugar and salt over the flour and butter. With your hands, work the butter into the flour. You want the butter to be as well combined as it can be before adding water to it. Large chunks of butter will cause holes in your crust once it melts. Next create a nest in the center of your flour mixture and add a tablespoon of water. Mix with the flour. Continue to add more water until it forms a firm ball of dough that isn’t sticky, but doesn’t crumble in your hand.
I found it easiest to roll my dough out on a floured pizza stone, but you can use parchment paper and transfer it to a cooking sheet when it’s formed. Roll your dough to form a circle. Don’t go too thin that it falls apart when you enclose your filling, or too thick. You will know if you have gone too thick because there will be no room for filling in the middle. Leaving about one inch buffer to the edge of the pie crust. In the center of the crust, use a fork to pile tiny air holes to promote even baking, then begin to fill the pie with fruit. I created two layers of strawberries. Once the fruit is down, begin to fold the outer edge of the crust inward to enclose the fruit. Brush the crust with egg whites and sprinkle some sugar onto the crust. Preheat your oven to 400 and bake for 15 minutes, then cover with foil and bake 15 minutes more. The first 15 minutes browns the outer crust and the last 15 will cook the fruit juices to make them less runny.
Let rest and cool before serving. Enjoy!