Strawberry and raspberry galette

I have been enjoying fresh strawberries for over a month now. It’s always the greatest feeling each year when I see the first ones appear at the market and I want to take home with me each and every little basket I lay my eyes on. I become a glutton, munching on them every chance I get, mostly with just a sprinkling of sugar.

After a while, I reluctantly begin to add them to desserts. Tarts, cakes, galettes and of course ice creams. When they mingle with butter, cream, sugar, flour and eggs, their taste becomes a little muted but never muddled.

Then I begin the process of jam making. That’s a huge deal to me when it comes to strawberries. I want to preserve the little red beauties for weeks and months to come, keep them for when the memory of the fresh berries has long fainted and I desperately need to it to be revived.

My go-to recipe is this one and this year I deviated from my regular way of making it. I lightly mashed the strawberries and allowed them to simmer for fifteen more minutes to get that traditional jam texture and feel. S was complaining, as he prefers the preserve-like type of jam with the whole fruits floating in the sweet liquid, but of course he proceeded to finish the first jar in a matter of days.

A couple of days ago I made this galette with strawberries and raspberries. It’s not very photogenic, but I couldn’t help but sharing it because it tastes so damn good. It’s easy, quick and the best treat ever.

It has a buttery, flaky crust, with a little crunch at the bottom from the addition of ground hazelnuts to the base to soak up some of the fruits’ juices, and the light sprinkling of demerara sugar over the rim of the pastry not only adds a caramel-y sweetness but texture as well. The sweet and tart berries release their juices during baking and become almost like jam, and the apricot glaze makes them shiny again and adds that little bit of extra sweetness that balances the sourness of the raspberries.

When some months ago I was craving the flavor of strawberries, I bought an Italian wild-strawberry liqueur which came pretty handy with this galette. I added some to the filling and it gave such a lovely depth of flavor as well as a slight kick. You don’t need to use it if you don’t have it already and I wouldn’t suggest you buy it for that purpose only, but it was a nice touch.

I’ll leave you with this song. Happy June, and see you soon!

Strawberry and raspberry galette

A galette is an easier type of tart in the sense that it’s free-form and you don’t need a tart-pan to bake it in. You just roll it out, place the filling in the center and bring the sides of the pastry up and over the fruit.
Make sure to bake the galette inside a rimmed baking sheet as it will inevitably leak; not a lot but just enough to be unpleasant for you and your oven. I learned this the hard way when, one time, the bottom of my oven was covered in caramelized juices from a similar galette that leaked.

Demerara is raw cane sugar.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

for the pastry dough
200 g all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp caster sugar
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1 lemon
140 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1-2 Tbsp cold water

for the filling
180 g fresh strawberries, hulled and halved if large
120 g fresh raspberries
1 tsp corn flour
3 Tbsp caster sugar (or more if your berries are too tart)
½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 vanilla bean, cut in half and seeds scraped)
½ tsp wild-strawberry liqueur (optional)

25 g (2 Tbsp) ground hazelnut

for the apricot glaze
1 heaped Tbsp apricot jam
½ Tbsp water

1 small egg, lightly beaten, for glazing the dough
Demerara sugar, for glazing

Special equipment: large food processor, plastic wrap, rolling pin, rimmed baking sheet, baking paper, pastry brush, small sieve


Preparation

for the pastry dough
• with a food processor
In a large food processor, add the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest and blend for 5 seconds. Add the cold cubed butter and process for a few seconds until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Then add 1-2 Tbsp cold water and process in order to bring together the mixture into a dough that just holds together when pinched (see photo below). Add 1 Tbsp of water to start and see from there whether it needs more. You don’t want the dough to be wet.

• by hand
In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest and stir with a spatula. Add the cubed cold butter and, using two knives, a pastry cutter or your fingertips, cut it into the flour, until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Then add 1-2 Tbsp cold water and mix with your hands, working quickly, until the dough comes together into a ball that just holds together when pinched (see photo above). Add 1 Tbsp of water to start and see from there whether it needs more. You don’t want the dough to be wet.

Empty the pastry dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, form a disk, cover it and place it in the refrigerator to chill, for 40-45 minutes.

for the filling
Add the strawberries, raspberries, corn flour, sugar, vanilla and optionally the strawberry liqueur into a medium-sized bowl and mix gently with a spoon to coat the berries. Leave aside for 10 minutes.

Remove the pastry dough from the refrigerator, unwrap and discard the plastic wrap and place dough between two large sheets of baking paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry into an approximately 30cm round, with a 0.5cm thickness. Remove the top piece of baking paper and place the pastry, along with the bottom baking paper, onto a rimmed baking sheet.
Scatter in the middle of the pastry the ground hazelnuts. Arrange the strawberry-raspberry filling evenly in the middle of the round piece of pastry and on top of the ground hazelnuts, scraping out any juices and sugar that’s left in the bowl, and taking care to leave space around the edges of the pastry, about 5cm. Place the baking sheet in the fridge. At this point the pastry will have gotten soft so by putting it in the fridge, the butter will harden thus making the pastry flaky when baked.
Leave it in the fridge for about 25 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Remove it from the fridge and fold the edges of the pastry up and over the filling, making sure to seal any cracks, so the juices don’t run out during baking even though some will find their way out. You can use the baking paper to pull and fold the pastry dough over the fruit.
Using a pastry brush, glaze the dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle with some demerara sugar.
Place the baking sheet on the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake for about 40 minutes until the berries soften and the pastry takes on a golden-brown color.

Remove from the oven and immediately start to make the apricot glaze.
In a small pan add the apricot jam and the water and heat over medium heat until the jam melts, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and strain the mixture. Using a pastry brush, glaze all the berries gently (not the pastry) being careful not to break them up.

Allow the galette to slightly cool. Serve warm with some crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.
You can also eat it at room temperature.

You can keep it for a day or two, covered, at room temperature but it is best eaten the same day. The next day the pastry loses its flakiness and becomes somewhat biscuit-y but not hard.