A Blueberry Galette for Blueberry Pie Day

It took a while for me to bake cakes that I was proud to serve. Baking is a completely different skill set from cooking. Baking takes a certain amount of discipline that I often lack. Measurements are exact. There is little room to wing it.

Pie crusts remain a disaster for me. It’s the fancy edges that end up a hot mess. However; a Galette is suppose to look rustic. Galettes are so user friendly. The more you screw it up, the better it looks in the end. Today is National Blueberry Pie Day. Rather than deal with yet another pie disaster, a Galette just made sense. The only pie not possible in it’s more rustic form is a cream pie. Can you imagine what a mess that would be? Or would it? A light just came on – for a cream pie, the shell is baked first, then filled. What if I made a Galette on top of an inverted disposable pie tin? Baked it, then once it cooled, filled it. Hum, might need to try that for a strawberry pie this summer.

Wow, a little off track – but not that far. Shall we bake a Blueberry Galette? I will confess, while the Blueberry Galette is very pretty, it’s messy to serve. Without a pie tin, the juices tend to run out. Still, it is delicious.

Blueberry Galette
Galette Dough
8 tablespoons Butter
1-1/4 cups Flour
1 tablespoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Ice Water as needed

Cut butter into pieces, place in the freezer and let chill for about 10 minutes or so.

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add the cold butter to the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand and no large chunks of butter remain.

Fit food processor with a blade. Measure out flour, sugar and salt. Place in the bowl of the food processor, pulse to mix. Scatter cold butter over the flour mixture, pulse until it resembles damp sand. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time just until the dough comes together as a ball.

Turn dough out, press into an oval disk. Cover in plastic wrap, chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour.

Blueberry Filling
4 cups Blueberries
1/3 cup Sugar
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons Cornstarch
Pinch Salt
Splash Chambord or other Liqueur

Heat oven to 375-degrees. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit inside a rimmed baking sheet. Set paper aside on a flat work surface.

Wash berries, pat dry. Place blueberries in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch and a pinch of salt. Mix well. Add Chambord or other Liqueur if using, fold gently. Set aside.

Finishing Touches
1 Egg
Coarse Sugar
Vanilla Ice Cream, optional

Sprinkle the parchment paper lightly with flour. Remove dough from the refrigerator, place in the center of the paper. Roll dough out into a 12-inch circle. Carefully life dough with the paper onto a baking sheet. Place a 9-inch cake pan in the center of the circle and press down ever so slightly, remove cake pan.

Spoon berries onto the center of the Galette, filling dough with berries just to the indentation left by the cake pan.

Lift the edge of the dough toward the center, crimping and folding over every 3 inches or so, until the berries are held in place with the center still exposed.

Lightly beat egg with a little water to create a wash. Brush overlapping dough with the wash, then sprinkle with sugar. Place in the heated oven to bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is golden and the berries are glistening.

Let cool until just warm. Gently life and place on a cake plate. Slice and serve vanilla ice cream.

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My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.