recipes

Galette

Adapted from Claire Saffitz, but using foraged blackberries and almond flour. And no food processor.

Ingredients

Dough (one 12” round)

• 142g butter (5 oz, 1 stick + 2 tbsp), frozen solid
• 200g AP flour (1 1/2 cups, 7 oz)
• 13g sugar (1 tbsp)
• 3/4 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• ~1/3 cup ice water

Frangipane

• 3 tbsp room-temp butter (42g)
• 3 tbsp sugar (37g)
• 2.5 oz almond flour (71g)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp flour
• Pinch salt
• 1/8 tsp almond extract

Fruit

• One 18 oz (by volume) container of blackberries
• 3-4 tbsp sugar tossed with the berries

Rule of thumb if the fruit changes: sugar at 10-15% of fruit weight.

Finishing

• 1 egg yolk + a bit of heavy cream for the wash (the white gets discarded unless you have a use for it)
• 1-2 tbsp sugar on the crust border (coarse turbinado or demerara if you have it, otherwise granulated)

Steps

Dough (grated butter, no food processor)

• Freeze the butter solid, at least an hour.
• Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl
• Grate the frozen butter straight into the flour. Pause every so often to toss the shreds through the flour so they stay coated and separate.
• Sprinkle in ice water a little at a time, integrating with a chopstick. Stop as soon as it clumps into curds when pinched – it should look shaggy and a bit dry, not like a smooth ball.
• Form into a rough disc. We don’t want to develop gluten so don’t knead. Also beware that body heat melts butter and we don’t want that.
• Wrap and chill at least 1 hour (up to 2 days)

While the dough chills

• Cream the butter and sugar
• Mix in the almond flour, egg, flour, salt, and almond extract, then chill the frangipane
• Rinse the berries and pat them dry

Assembly

• Roll onto parchment to a rough 12” round, ~1/8” thick, and slide it onto a 13” pizza sheet
• Chill the rolled-out round again if needed
• Spread the frangipane on the round, leaving a 1 1/2 - 2” border
• Toss the berries with sugar and pile them on
• Fold the border over, egg wash it, sprinkle with sugar
• Freeze 15-30 min to firm up
• Bake at 375°F convection (convection toaster oven) for 30-35 min
• Cool for an hour on a wire rack

Tips

• The water amount is a target, not a rule.
• The dough should be a bit crumbly, not like a bread dough.
• The chill in the fridge isn’t optional. Unrested dough snaps back on the rolling pin and shrinks unevenly when baked.
• Almonds are milder than pistachios, so the frangipane reads flatter. 1/8 tsp almond extract adds flavor without more sugar or liquid. Don’t go past that – more starts to taste overdone.
• Sweetness lives in the sugar tossed with the berries. Sprinkling the crust feels like a lot while you’re doing it but barely moves the overall sweetness.
• Get the round actually round. An uneven edge is where the filling spills out.
• 400°F convection blackens the edges in spots. 375 avoids it.
• Actually cool it the full hour. Cutting in early is tempting and doesn’t go well.
• Foraged blackberries need a thorough rinse to get the surface stuff off, especially the little dried-up petals. A splash of vinegar in the water is supposed to drive bugs out, though that hasn’t been a problem so far.
• Pat the berries dry. Moisture is the thing to control here.