Mixed Berry Galette
It’s the magical time of the year when our gardens, CSAs, and the farmers’ markets are booming with fresh, flavorful, and delicious produce. Peaches, zucchinis, peppers, tomatoes, greens, herbs, berries, apricots, plums, etc… It’s all fresh and amazing. I love the bounty of summer. You can’t beat the flavors that you get this time of year.
This is also the time of year for backyard cookouts, lazy picnics, and long evenings. All these events call for the perfect dessert. A dessert that showcases the flavors of the season, and celebrates the simplicity of a warm summer afternoon. But also one that doesn’t take too much effort. And something that doesn’t sit too heavy on the stomach, because that game of flashlight tag is coming!
Enter this mixed berry galette. A galette is a simple, rustic, not-too-fussy, French cousin of the pie. It can be made savory or sweet and filled with an endless combination of flavors.
The Crust
The crust of a galette is just your basic pie crust. You can use a store-bought crust or a homemade crust. I prefer a butter or leaf lard (or a combination of the two) crust. Leaf lard creates just an amazing flaky and tender crust. And since it’s the superior lard (from around the kidneys) it doesn’t have a pork flavor. Leaf lard is definitely what you want to use for sweet baking.
In our house, all wheat products have to be soaked, sprouted, or soured. In the Weston A. Price or ancestral food crowd, this is also known as “properly preparing." This is what allows my gluten-sensitive daughter to eat products made with wheat. For this reason, I make pie crust with my sourdough starter. I use the recipe from Butter for All. I usually make up a huge stash of sourdough pie crusts around Thanksgiving and then freeze them. That way, whenever we want pie, galette, hand pies, pot pies, etc… I always have crust ready to go.
The Fruit
This recipe can be made with fresh or frozen fruit. I used frozen because I really didn’t want to cook up the fresh stuff when it tastes so amazingly fresh. But the recipe is the same either way. I used a bag of mixed berries for this mixed berry galette (get it, mixed berry galette?), but you can use peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries, etc… You can mix fruits or just go with one. Pretty much any fruit that cooks nicely can be used, there just might have to be a few adjustments made to the portions.
Toppings
Ice cream is the obvious topping here. I would suggest going all the way and using a homemade, raw milk ice cream. (I’m drooling.) Fresh whipped cream is also a winner. Another option is just a drizzle of honey. All delicious and still something I wouldn’t mind eating on a regular weeknight.
Substitutions
I already mentioned that fresh or frozen berries would work. And so will other fruits. But there are a few other substitutions that should work out just fine, although I haven’t tried them.
Water - might sound silly to list a substitute for water, but hear me out. If you wanted to skip the honey you could use apple or grape juice in place of the water.
Honey - you can probably substitute maple syrup 1:1. If you want to use a granulated sweetener, the proportions might be different. You might also just be able to leave out the honey if your fruit was sweet enough.
Butter - coconut oil would probably work just fine, though it might give it more of a coconut-y flavor.
Mixed Berry Galette
Ingredients
- 4 cups mixed berries (I used frozen)
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- Turbinado Sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out your pie crust dough to about the thickness of two nickels and cut it into a rough circle. Set on the parchment paper and put to the side.
- Add the fruit and water to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. As the berries start to cook, smash them with a fork, potato masher, or just the back of a wooden spoon. Make sure to stir the fruit so as not to let it burn. It will thicken as it cooks and reduces.
- Once the berries have cooked down and reduced, you should be able to run a spatula across the bottom of the pan and the sauce won't fill in the gap too quickly. That's when you know it's done. Add your honey and butter and stir to melt it all together.
- Allow the filling to cool slightly before pouring into the middle of the pie crust. You don't want the filling to run off the edges of the crust. Fold the edges of the crust up over the sides of the filling to make a sort of rustic-edged shape. Optional: sprinkle the edges of the crust with turbinado sugar for a sparkly finish.
- Bake at 350° F for about 25-30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
