cheery little peach galettes

 

What makes them cheery?   Bourbon.  And cinnamon.  And, of course, sweet little O'Henry peaches from a friend's tree.  You'd be cheery, too, if you had all of that going for you.  

In France, galette is an all-purpose term that can refer to any round, flat food item - from crepes to cookies to tarts to cakes.  But here, we mostly think of these little free-form fruit tarts when we think of galettes.   Still, there is no hard and fast rule about what type of crust or filling is appropriate or traditional.  One could use puff pastry as easily as pate brisee, or the type of crust that I used for this galette...which is closer to the pie-crust end of the spectrum:  buttery and flaky.   

The crust:

1 1/2 cups all-purpse flour

1/2 teaspoon sugar

pinch of salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (very cold, diced)

5 tablesoons ice water

Mix the flour, sugar & salt in a bowl.  With a pastry cutter or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the largest pieces of butter are the size of small peas or lentils.   Add the ice water in the following manner:  sprinkle one tablespoon onto the dough mixture at a time, and blend lightly with a fork.   Avoid over mixing.  Add only enough water so that the dough will just come together - it may be slightly more or slightly less than 5 tablespoons.    Form the dough gently into a flat disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.  

Filling:

2-3 cups sliced peaches

Granulated sugar - to taste

Pinch of salt

A slug of bourbon - to taste

Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  You can add a teaspoon or so of cornstarch, as well, to thicken the juices, but it's not necessary.   

Remove the galette dough from the refrigerator, and roll out onto a lightly floured surface.  You should get approximately a 12" round.   Transfer the disk to a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Fill the center of the circle with your fruit, leaving a 2" circle around the edges.  Fold the exposed edges up around the fruit in a casual, rustic manner.  

(And this is the thing with galettes, as far as I'm concerned.  The whole point is that they are a casual, rustic dessert.   You'll notice that the fruit in the galette in the photo has slightly charred edges.  That's not a mistake - they're supposed to be that way.   There are things you can do to a tart to avoid charring the tips, but that would be - in my opinion - contrary to the spirit of the dessert.   In the same vein, I am, personally, anti-eggwash when it comes to galettes:  I think the crust should bake and brown in a natural manner.   Eggwash is too fussy for a rustic tart.   Which leads me to the next step...)

Very lightly brush the crust of the galette with water.  Sprinkle with granulated sugar, or with cinnamon sugar.   (Cinnamon and peach are a truly lovely combination, so I totally advocate cinnamon sugar.)

Bake 45 minutes - 1 hour, or until done. 

Let cool, but if the galette has leaked any juices (and they often do), make sure to remove from the parchment paper before the juices have a chance to harden.  The escaped liquids from tarts and pies are quite possibly the stickiest substance known to man, and will render removal of said tarts and pies from parchment paper darn near impossible if left to harden. 

Comments

[heather]

beautiful!