Cranberry Galette
Thanksgiving feels like a century ago. Back then–what was it, two weeks? I has leftover cranberry sauce, so, in an effort to use it up, I baked a cranberry galette. This cranberry galette was a huge hit with Mr. IK, so I decided to bake more.
Above, the galette that started it all.
Well, the to road to hell and all that. Since my decision to bake more tarts, I managed to get rice in the washing machine and the van’s check engine light has gone on. How did I get rice in the washing machine? No idea. Then again, less and less makes sense these days.
Happily, cranberry galette will not add to your confusion. Even the clumsiest baker can make it. For example, me.
The crust is Deb Perelman’s All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough, from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. You didn’t think I invented a pie crust, did you?
There are other pie crusts out there, and they’re excellent, but I stick Deb’s, because it’s friendly and well-behaved. The dough comes together quickly, will wait in the refrigerator until you are ready for it, and doesn’t mind a bit of patching if necessary.
About the cranberry sauce, which in this context is the galette filling.
You need a generous half-cup/100 grams cranberry sauce to fill the galette. Cranberries are sold in 7 ounce/340gram bags across the United States. After some experimentation, I found it easiest to prepare the entire bag. This yields a scant two cups of cranberry sauce. Obviously, this is more than you need for one galette, so the extra sauce may be frozen. Use it to bake more galettes or fill muffins. The sauce is also a nice accompaniment to pound cakes or vanilla ice cream.
If you are able to buy cranberries loose, purchase a generous 12 ounces/340 grams. Your galette should be more berries than juice.
You have noticed the above has absolutely nothing to do with cranberries. No photo was good enough. But the van crapped out Saturday night, and I had to take it in, and the repair shop was near this little garden. Some liberties were taken, obviously, but no gardens were harmed and all that.
I used Madeira in my cranberry sauce, but other alcohols may be used. Consider Cointreau, Marsala, Amaretto (go easy), Cherry Heering, or Kirsch.
For an alcohol-free sauce, consider orange juice, pomegranate juice, or blood orange juice.
Cranberries are notoriously tart, and most Americans add ample amounts of sugar to counter this. I’m happy with a scant 1/4 cup (60 grams), but realize I’m in the minority. Add sugar to taste, keeping in mind you’ll be adding sugar to the galette.
The almond paste is optional. My market sells it in their bakery case. Odense brand is also excellent (they are not paying me; I just like them) You can also make almond past at home with skinned, blanched almonds: put them in a food processor and grind until a paste forms.
(edit: I went shopping today-12-7-22-and there wasn’t a smear of almond paste to be found.)
Cranberry galette keeps well, wrapped, at room temperature, for three days. After that, if you have any left, refrigerate it for a few more days in a plastic bag or tinfoil. After that, freeze it. If your house is anything like mine, you won’t have it around that long.
Cranberry Galette
The amounts given make two galettes measuring approximately 7-9 inches across/13-16 cm
Each galette serves 3-6 people or two greedy eaters
Cranberry sauce for galette filling:
One 7 ounce/340 gram bag cranberries
1/3 cup/75 ml water
1/2 cup/100 grams baker’s suger (caster sugar)
1/4 cup/60 ml Madeira/ liquor of choice/ fresh orange juice
Rinse cranberries in a colander. Combine ingredients in small saucepan. Place over medium heat. When cranberries begin popping, the sauce is done. This takes about five minutes, no more. Pour cranberry sauce into a lidded storage container and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate.
Notes:
As discussed in the post, cranberries are sold in 7 ounce/340 Gram bags here, so I make the entire bag. Attempts to make less were unsuccessful. A generous 1/2 cup/100grams cranberry sauce is needed to make one galette.
The baker’s sugar dissolves more rapidly, but if you only have regular, that’s fine.
While you can prepare the galette immediately, it’s best to allow the cranberry sauce to chill for a few hours if possible.
Deb Perelman’s All Butter Pie Crust, from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
2 1/2 cups/315 grams AP Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
8 ounces/227grams unsalted butter, frozen
1/2 cup/100ml icewater
to assemble the cranberry galette:
one egg
sugar, for dusting
approximately 4 tablespoons/1/4 cup/60mg almond paste (optional)
Additional flour for dusting the work surface.
Mix the flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Remove the butter from the freezer. Cut into small pieces. Toss pieces into mixing bowl. If the butter begins softening, put it back in the freezer. Cold is the name of the game here.
Once all the butter is cut up, use your clean hands, a pastry mixer, two forks, or two knives to blend the butter and flour. Initially it will feel like the butter will never blend into the flour. Be patient. It will. Once the butter begins to give a bit, add icewater as needed. It’s hard to give exact amounts; this is a matter of feel, practice, the flour, and your kitchen. I always need all the water.
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Dump the buttery, floury mass onto this surface and knead, gathering loose bits of flour until the mess coheres. Again, it may look and feel like a shaggy mess, but it will suddenly come together and become dough. You may need to add more flour. If so, add as little as possible.
Once you have a dough, slice it into two equal parts with a large knife or bench knife. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. Dough will keep, refrigerated, for a week, and frozen for three months.
When you are ready to assemble the cranberry galette, preheat your oven to 400F/200C.
Bring the galette dough to room temperature.
If the cranberry filling is refrigerated, bring that out, too.
Crack one egg into a small bowl and whisk with a fork to blend. Have a pastry brush or spoon handy.
Have a small dish of white sugar ready.
If you are using the almond paste, have that to hand, too.
I usually make two galettes, one after the other. My oven is too small to handle both simultaneously.
Line a baking sheet (or two baking sheets) with baking parchment or nonstick baking liner.
Place one half of the dough on the lightly floured work surface. Flour the dough lightly. Flour your rolling pin–just a dusting. Gently roll the dough from the center outward, moving clockwise. Carefully flip the dough over, flour lightly again, and roll again. Aim for a rough circle, rolling the dough as thinly as possible. If the dough fights you, let it sit for five minutes.
Any holes may be patched with a bit of dough pinched from an outer edge. Galettes are meant to look rustic.
Once the dough is as thin as you think you can get it, either lift it your fingers or use a wide spatula to transfer the round to the baking sheet.
Dip the pastry brush or spoon into the egg and paint the galette dough generously.
Now take a small handful of sugar–about two teaspoons–and scatter that over the egg wash.
If you are using almond paste, press it in blobs (a very technical term) over the sugar.
Scatter more sugar over the almond paste.
Using a tablespoon, spoon the cranberry filling over the almond paste (or egg wash), aiming for an even distribution. How much border you want to leave is up to you; I always leave about 1 inch/2.5 centimeters.
Once the cranberry sauce is used up, fold the edges of crust over, pressing the folds into place. Tuck any stray bits of pastry under the folds.
Paint the folded pastry with egg wash and give the tart a final scattering of sugar.
Place galette in the oven and bake 30-40 minutes, rotating the baking sheet after 15 minutes.
Galette is ready when the pastry is deeply browned and the cranberry filling is bubbling.
Cranberry galette may be kept at room temperature, well-wrapped, for three days. After that, refrigerate it.
Cranberry galette freezes well up to two months.
Notes:
And of course, there is no rule limiting the filling to cranberries.
In the past ten days we’ve lost Irene Cara, Christine McVie, and Aline Kominsky-Crumb.
One of the difficulties of social media is the attendant tower of babel, effectively if unwittingly everyone by drowning them out. The paeans may be knowledgable. They maybe genuinely heartfelt. But in the end, there are entirely too many of them.
Then, drawing up the rear, come the appraisals and best-of’s. These arguably useless summaries are often written by journalists who know little, if anything about the artist in question. Far too much is made of the individual’s ethnicity or gender, leading me to wonder what the artist would have wanted said about themselves.
It’s trite to say all three women were wonderful artists who will be missed terribly, but they were, and they will be.
