We really had fun with French foods, but one of our favorites was the galette. A large free form fruit tart, it was sweet and fun to make. Because this summer has been so crazy hot, we changed the recipe up a bit to make our own individual galettes instead of one big one – this way we could bake them in the toaster oven instead of turning on the big one.
We began with Emeril’s fruit galette recipe. After reading it carefully and understanding how it was supposed to work, we pretty much tossed it out the window and made up our own. First, we prepared our fruit.
We peeled and sliced 4 ripe peaches and added two handfuls of washed blueberries. So precise, aren’t we? We added 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and several dashes of Fruit Fresh. My Big Helper stirred it up and then we moved on to the crust.
My great-grandmother made fabulous pie crust, so while I’m sure that Emeril’s is good, I see no reason to mess with perfection! We made a half-batch of Grandma’s crust for this project. For her crust, mix together 1 1/2 c. flour with 1/2 t. salt. Cut in 1/2 c. shortening and then add 3 tablespoons of water.
Using clean fingers, gently press the water into the mixture. Form a ball and then divide it loosely in half. We divided that yet again, and then use one ball for each galette. This made tarts about the size of a salad plate.
On a well-floured surface, roll out a ball of dough. Gently transfer it to a foil-lined baking sheet, sprayed or buttered to prevent sticking. With a slotted spoon, transfer some of the fruit mixture to the center of the dough circle. Fold up the edges of the dough to contain the fruit, adding more fruit to the center as you fold up the edges.
Repeat until you have made all tarts. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until crust just begins to brown at the edges and the fruit is cooked through when poked with a fork.
We meant to take a picture to show you the finished project. We wanted to take a picture of the finished galette … but we were too busy eating them. My Big Helper and I loved these tarts. Very similar to a peach pie, these were cute, could be eaten by hand if necessary, and would be amazing topped with whipped cream or ice cream.
My favorite part of making these tarts was that I didn’t have to make the crust fit anything. However it rolled out worked. This is a very flexible crust, but I do like my pies to be pretty …. but these tarts are pretty in their rustic–ness. The imperfections make them beautiful – thus, no stress over patched crust or a crooked center. 🙂
We will definitely be making these again!
