Galette

I like making pie crust, but it does take too long and get too fiddly for anything but holiday cooking. The solution to the pie problem is a galette, in which you roll pie crust out and top it like flatbread.

My galette recipe was inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s many galettes which add yogurt or sour cream to a butter pie crust, but you can also make them with a regular butter or shortening crust.

Because it’s the risotto of pie (i.e., you can put anything in there), the filling instructions are intentionally vague. It’s important to keep the filling somewhat dry so that the bottom crust will bake. If you have one of those pizza pans with holes, or a pizza stone, they can help to brown the bottom.

Makes 1–4 galettes, depending on size.

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 ¼ c. (160 g.) all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ T. sugar
• 1 stick butter, cold
• ¼ c. yogurt
• 3 T. cold water

Filling

• 3 cups or 1 lb. fruit, vegetable, or fungus of your choice (e.g., berries, sliced apples, zucchini, mushrooms, etc.)
• sugar, pie spice, lemon juice, and starch or flour for a fruit galette
• spices, 1 ¼ c. cheese, and onion or garlic for a savory galette

Topping

• egg, egg wash, or cream (optional)
• sanding sugar or coarse salt (optional)

Directions

1. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients as with pie dough.
2. Mix the water and yogurt, and use to moisten the dough. Add another tablespoon of water if necessary.
3. Form into a ball.
4. Chill one hour.
5. Prepare filling of your choice. (Many savory fillings need some pre-cooking.)
6. Preheat oven to 400° (375° with convection, but preferably without).
7. Roll out dough into approximately a 12 inch circle.
8. Fill approximately a 9 inch circle in the center. If you have separate dry ingredients like cheese, spread those first and make a second layer of wetter ingredients.
9. Fold the unfilled edge over onto the filling.
10. Optionally brush the edges with egg/wash or cream after folding them over. Optionally sprinkle the edges with sanding sugar (sweet) or coarse salt (savory).
11. Bake 30 minutes or more, depending on the filling.
12. Cool on a rack 20 minutes.

Serve at any temperature.

Variants

Substitute sour cream for the yogurt.

Galettes can be any size, so you could make individual servings or a whole sheet pan.

You can make up to four smaller galettes out of a single batch of dough. (For two, roll them out to 8 ½ inches, for three, 7 inches, and for four, six inches. Leave only an inch of crust when filling.)

To overfill a galette like her blackberry cheesecake version the Smitten Kitchen recommends using a pie plate.

Umami Girl has a detailed formula for filling a savory galette.

For a smaller galette, use half a stick of butter, ⅔ c. flour, a quarter teaspoon sugar, a dash of table salt, and 2-3 T. cold water as needed. Cut the quantity of filling in half as well.

Galette is a more general term, but the only confusing use of it is the potato galette, which can be a pie-style galette with potato filling or a round casserole of thinly sliced potatoes with no pie crust.

Italian crostatas are sometimes described as the same as galettes, but they’re usually fancier and use a different style of pastry dough.