Plum-Raspberry Galette

Sometimes, my eyes and my intentions are way bigger than my stomach and my schedule.  I have been known to buy bulk bags of fruits and/or veggies with the best of intentions to try out some new recipe or to just make sure I am eating en0ugh of the “good stuff.”  But then I end up, usually due to forgetfulness or lack of time, unable to eat or to use the massive quantity that I purchased which then results in a drawer full of some perfectly ripe fruit or veggie which I am then desperate to use up because I do not want to carry around the guilt that I just wasted perfectly good food.  So, when I ended up with a drawer full of very ripe plums and a desire to not end up throwing most of them out, I figured the next best option…bake with them. :)

As far as what to make, I instantly thought of a galette.  Galettes have always been very appealing to me mostly because of their elegant and rustic quality but also because the possibilities regarding the filling seem endless.  Having only made a handful of galettes ages ago (and clearly not impressed by the dough/crust in either), I set out to find a galette dough recipe and/or plum galette recipe that could serve as my inspiration.   The right dough is an absolute necessity to a good galette.

When I came upon Kiss My Spatula’s recipe, the look of the dough captured in her pictures was exactly what I was aiming for.  And she used plums in the recipe too.  Thinking it was a win-win situation, I decided to use her recipe for inspiration.  I ended up reducing the amount of butter and sugar (which I am always apt to do), used a combination of flours rather than just all-purpose flour and created a different filling.  What I ended up with was a very delicious crust and  a sweet, tangy and juicy filling.  The version of the dough that I created is definitely the recipe that I will be using from now on.

The raspberries came in to my recipe because I had a small container of them in the fridge to use up too and I thought that the flavor combination of the raspberries and plums would provide a nice and tasty “sweet/tart” flavor, just how I like it (the Flavor Bible was backing me up on this combination too).  So, yeah, the galette was really, really good.  Next time, the plan is to serve it warm with vanilla ice cream.  Galette á la mode…love.

Plum-Raspberry Galette (inspired by and adapted from Kiss My Spatula)

Dough:
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of brown rice flour
6 TBSP of cold butter, cut into cubes
1/8 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2-4 TBSP of cold water

Filling:
1/8 cup of almonds, ground
4 plums, sliced
1 pint of raspberries
3 1/2 TBSP of brown sugar*
1/2 tsp of lemon zest
1 tsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 TBSP all purpose flour
1 TBSP of butter, melted
pinch of salt
1/8 – 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, optional
1 egg white

1.  Combine flours, sugar, and salt for the dough.  Cut in the butter until the texture becomes coarse (size of  baby peas).  To cut in the butter, you can use a food processor, pastry blender, or go old-school like me and use the back of a fork.  :)

2.  Add 2 TBSP of the water.  Begin mixing.  Add more water if necessary until the dough begins coming together.  Then form the dough into a ball.

3.  Flatten the dough a bit and refrigerate for at least one hour.  (This process of making the dough is very similar to making pie crust dough).

4.  After the dough is chilled, roll it out until it is about 1/8 inch thick.  Remember that you want the ends to be “rough” looking so need to worry about making them look neat or smooth.  After you have rolled out your dough, I would recommend moving the dough onto your parchment lined or greased baking sheet.  (I did not move mine over until later and it was a bit difficult to shift will all the toppings on it.  I will definitely shift  the dough over earlier next time.).

5.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Combine the ground almonds with 1/2 TBSP of brown sugar.  Spread a thin layer of the mixture over the dough staying 1-2 inches away from the edges.

6.  In a bowl, combine sliced plums, raspberries, flour, 3 TBSP brown sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, melted butter, salt and optional cinnamon.* (As my plums, despite being very ripe, were still quite tart, I used 3 TBSP of brown sugar for the filling but feel free to use more or less based on the sweetness of your plums or based on your taste preference.  You can keep tasting the flavor of your filling as you go in order to get an idea of the sweetness/tartness.).

 7.  Top the almond layer with the fruit mixture.  Then begin folding up the ends of the dough partly over the filling.

8.  Do your best to smooth out any cracks that form in the dough (you can use a dab of water to help smooth it out).   This step will help to keep the fruit juices from leaking out.  (Although in my case, some juice still did leak out).  Remember, the galette is rustic looking in nature so when “sealing” up any cracks, it does not need to be perfectly smoothed out.

9.  Brush on a layer of the egg white over the dough.  This serves as an added seal and gives a nice sheen to the crust.  Then sprinkle the top with some brown sugar.

10.  Bake for approximately 50-55 minutes.  (Kiss My Spatula baked her galette for 70 minutes at 350 degrees so I think it just all depends on your oven.  You can not go wrong by setting your oven at 325 degrees and just monitoring the baking process).  When the galette is done (it will have a nice golden crust), cool and serve.

11.  Optional: When serving, sprinkle some powdered sugar over the top for presentation.  :)

Enjoy!