Blueberry Galettes

Ever get ideas stuck in your head? I had this idea to make galettes. I made them. The crust was awful. I made them again. The crust was fair. I made them yet again. My cursing was abominable.

Try and try and try again, I finally found one recipe with a galette crust that was amazing. It's a shame that when you read the instructions all you can think is "oh that's never gonna work." Not to mention the snide taunts of my friends asking me how my mental health is doing as I slam frozen butter with a rolling pin. Over, and over, and over again.

It's most likely for the best, as the anger I had boiling up from my previous failure spurred the aggressive attack on the butter. It's like that little book on happiness I read said, failure and disappointing force us to change things. Light bulbs never would have been in invented if everyone was content with candles. Pastry chefs never would have become artisans if everyone was happy with cupcakes (Slam! I'm over cupcakes. Make it stop).

Thank heaven for pastry chefs and all they do for us. Cheers. 

Blueberry Galettes

1 cup unsalted butter, very cold
1/2 cup water
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 cups blueberries
Granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream
Granulated sugar, for sprinkling

To make the dough, cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put them in the freezer. Measure the water, dissolve the salt into it and put into the freezer as well. Chill both for about 10 minutes.

Measure the flour onto a large, flat work surface and spread into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour and toss a little flour over the butter so that your rolling pin won’t stick, and begin rolling. When the butter starts flattening out into long, thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up the sides of the rectangle so that it is the size that you started with. Repeat the rolling and scraping 3 or 4 times.

Make a well in the center and pour all of the water into it. Using the bench scraper, scoop the sides of the dough into the center, cutting the water through the dough. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is a shaggy mass and shape into a rectangle.

Lightly dust the top with flour and roll out the rectangle until it is half as large again, then scrape the top, bottom and sides together to the original size and re-roll. Repeat 3 or 4 times until you have a smooth and cohesive dough. Transfer rectangle of dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and chill for about an hour.

When you are ready to roll the dough, divide it into 6 equal portions for small ones. Roll the dough into circle shapes by rolling from the center to each end, not flattening the end points. Turn the pastry so the flattened out corners are at the top and bottom. Again, roll from the center towards the points nearest and farthest to you, stopping short of the top and bottom. Roll the thicker areas and you will begin to see a circle forming. Transfer to baking sheets and chill for 10 minutes.

Fill the center of each dough circle with fruit, leaving a one inche edge. Taste the fruit for sweetness and determine how much sugar you want to use to sweeten it. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, typically 1-2 teaspoons. Fold in the sides of the circle to cover the fruit partially. Chill for another 10 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375ºF. To make the egg wash, whisk egg yolk and cream in a small bowl. Crush the egg wash over the pastry edges and then sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake the galettes until the crust has visibly puffed and baked to dark brown and the juice from the fruit is bubbling inside –  40-50 minute. Rotate the baking sheets at the midway point to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and serve hot or at room temperature.