Big City, Little Kitchen

Blueberries taste so good right now, and I bought a big container of them at Whole Foods with this recipe (sort of) in mind. A slightly tart, rustic pastry just seems like the right sort of dessert to have in weather like this.

This is derived from the fruit galette recipe in Tartine, by Elizabeth Prueitt. The main difference between my recipe and hers lies in the making of the dough. Instead of working on a board, spreading out the flour, scattering over the butter, repeatedly rolling it out, and mixing in water, I worked in a mixing bowl, cutting the butter into the flour, then mixing in the water, as I’d seen my mom do when I was growing up. This little kitchen, unfortunately, has neither a big wooden board nor the room to use it. Nevertheless, the dough came out as light, crisp, and flaky as any I’ve made.

Another interesting tip from Prueitt is filling the dough, then sprinkling the sugar and lemon juice over the fruit, rather than mixing it, then filling the dough. This way, the sugar doesn’t settle to the bottom or clump onto certain pieces of fruit. Rather, sprinkling it over the top ensures even distribution, and the heat will cause some of the sugar to melt through the layers of fruit.

Blueberry Galette

Makes 2 medium-sized galettes

Dough

• 1 cup cold, unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Filling

• 3 cups blueberries
• 2-6 tsp turbinado sugar
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Egg Wash

• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tb heavy cream

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375.

Cut the butter into 1-tb pieces; chill in freezer for 10 minutes. Dissolve salt in water; chill in freezer for 10 minutes. Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl, and cut in the butter using a pastry cutter. It’s ok to have a few dime-sized pieces of butter; it doesn’t have to be a uniform mixture. Make a well in the flour mixture; pour in water, and, using the pastry cutter, combine to form a dough. Turn out onto a floured surface, sprinkle with flour, and roll out to form a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Fold dough in half, and roll out again; repeat this step 3 or 4 times. Chill for 30 minutes.

Remove from refridgerator, cut in half, and roll each half into a circle, 1/8 inch thick. Mound 1 1/2 cup berries in middle of each circle, leaving a border of about 2 inches, sprinkle berries with 2 tb sugar (more or less to taste, depending on natural sweetness of fruit), and squeeze lemon juice over. Fold in the border to partially cover the fruit. Whisk together the egg and the cream, then brush over the dough and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 50 minutes; let cool and enjoy, perhaps with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.