The Great Galette Experiment of Aught Nine - take 1

So here is a picture of my first try at a galette. I had just been blackberry picking with some friends and all I had was nectarines in the house. So instead of raspberry and peach for my first try I made blackberry and nectarine. I know not the same thing, but I was using what I had at hand.

First I went in search of a tart dough. I ended up (as I so often do lately) turning to my America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. I found a recipe for Rustic free form tart dough. Perfect! exactly what I was looking for. And it was easy. Combine ingredients in the cuisinart and then form a ball and refrigerate. With the America's Test Kitchen instructions it was also wasy to roll out between two pieces of parchment paper. Hooray!

As I was flipping through the book I found a recipe for a free form apple tart. Better and better I thought, I'll just adapt this for stone fruit and berries. Then I looked to the side of the apple tart recipe and there was a stone fruit and berries variant.

Oh America's Test Kitchen sometimes you way overcomplicate things sometimes but how I love you anyway.

Suprisingly, I managed to mess up the fruit in this tart worse than the tart dough. I forgot to add the sugar until the fruit was already on the crust, and I didn't have any corn starch so the runnyness had begun way before the tart even started cooking.

The result of my first galette ever was a soggy bottomed, slightly too tart tart with crust that was a little too salty. I also rolled out the crust too thick so the crust to fruit ratio felt a little unbalanced. Perhaps two smaller galettes next time.

Upon tasting it my husband was quick to inform me that the dough wasn't sweet enough and why hadn't I put more sugar on top of the crust like they did in the bakery?

I informed him that beggars can't be choosers and to eat his galette before I took it away from him. He did and I promised to try again later on in the week.

Here is the original recipe that I used: It should be interesting to see how this changes over the coming weeks!

Free Form Summer Fruit Tart ( adapted slightly from the Cooks Illustrated Website and the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book)

Dough

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces), plus additional for work surface

1/2 teaspoon table salt

10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks), cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

4 - 6 tablespoons water (ice cold)

Fruit Filling

1 pound peaches, nectarines, apricots, or plums

1 cup berries (about 1/2 dry pint)

½ cup tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons corn starch

Instructions

1. Note: The amount of water that the dough will require depends on the ambient humidity; in a dry environment, it may need more water, in a humid environment, less. The dough can be made ahead and refrigerated overnight or tightly wrapped in two sheets of plastic wrap and frozen for up to one week. If at any point the dough becomes soft, sticky, and dificult to work with during rolling, chill it until it becomes workable.

2. For the dough: In food processor, pulse flour and salt to combine, about three 1-second pulses. Scatter butter pieces over flour, then pulse until texture resembles coarse bread crumbs and butter pieces about the size of small peas remain, ten to twelve 1-second pulses. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon water over mixture and process 1 second; repeat until dough begins to form small curds and holds together when pinched with fingers. Empty dough onto work surface; dough will be crumbly (if dough has large dry areas, sprinkle additional 2 teaspoons water over dry areas and incorporate by gently fluffing entire amount of dough with fingers). Using bench scraper, gather dough into rough mound about 12 inches long and 4 inches wide (mound should be perpendicular to edge of counter). Beginning from farthest end, use heel of a hand to smear about one sixth of dough against work surface away from you. Repeat until all dough has been worked. Using bench scraper, gather dough again and repeat. Dough should now be cohesive. Form dough into 4-inch disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until cold and firm but malleable, about 1 hour.

3. For the filling: During last 30 minutes of chilling, prepare fruit. Halve and pit stone fruit and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Gently wash and dry berries. Combine fruit in medium bowl (you should have about 3 cups); set aside. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees.

4. To assemble and bake: (If dough has chilled longer than 1 hour and is cold and hard, let stand at room temperature 15 to 20 minutes before proceeding.) On large sheet of parchment paper lightly dusted with flour, roll dough to 12-inch round about 3/16 inch thick, dusting with flour as needed. (If dough sticks to parchment, gently loosen and lift sticky area with bench scraper and dust parchment with additional flour.) Slide parchment and dough onto baking sheet and refrigerate until cool and firm yet pliant, 15 to 30 minutes (if refrigerated longer and dough is hard and brittle, let stand at room temperature until pliant).

5. Toss the fruit with sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and corn starch.

6. Remove baking sheet with dough from refrigerator. Mound fruit in center of dough, leaving 2 1/2-inch border around edge. Carefully grasp one edge of dough and fold up outer 2 inches over fruit, leaving 1/2-inch area of dough just inside of fold free of fruit. Repeat around circumference of tart, overlapping dough every 2 to 3 inches; gently pinch pleated dough to secure, but do not press dough into fruit. Working quickly, brush dough with water and sprinkle evenly with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake until crust is deep golden brown and fruit is bubbling, 50 to 55 minutes. Cool tart on baking sheet on wire rack 10 minutes. Using offset or wide metal spatula, loosen tart from parchment and carefully slide tart off parchment onto wire rack; cool until warm, about 30 minutes, or to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cut into wedges and serve.