I discovered, about a year ago, how ridiculously easy it is to make a fruit galette. Much easier than pie! And you can fill it with absolutely anything. The only thing that requires a little bit of practice is the crust, but because it’s freeform and rustic, it really doesn’t matter if it splits or cracks, and it doesn’t have to be even. In fact, it should be slightly lopsided to add to that rustic feel. I like using blueberries, peaches in the summer, and in the fall and winter apples and/or pears are great.
One important thing to remember, and I say this from experience, is to transfer your rolled out dough to the parchment paper BEFORE you put the fruit on top! Much harder to move when it’s full. After the dough is rolled out, and your fruit is poured into the middle, take a deep breath and start gathering and folding the sides up. Remember, it shouldn’t look perfect. Fold, crimp, smush…. it will come together into a pretty package. Then just brush the edges with water, sprinkle on some sugar, pop it in the oven and wait….. that’s the hardest part.

Ingredients:
For the crust:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (very cold)
• 1/4 cup ice cold water
• 1/2 tbsp white vinegar

For the filling:

• about 2 cups of berries, or other chopped up fruit.
• 1 tsp – 1 tbsp sugar, depending on how sweet your fruit is. Sometimes I don’t use any at all
• Juice of 1 lemon

Directions:
The trick to a good crust is for everything to be cold, and then to let the crust rest a bit.
To make the crust, put flour and salt in a food processor and pulse once. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour. Pulse about 10 times, till the flour looks like very coarse sand. Mix the water and vinegar together (the vinegar will make sure that your crust stays flaky even if you overwork your dough a little!). With the motor of the food processor running, pour the water through the feed tube. Pulse until the dough just starts to come together. Turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Use the sides of the plastic to form the dough into a ball, and flatten into a disc. Cover with the plastic and refrigerate for about a half hour.
Preheat oven to 375.
After the dough has rested, roll it out to approximately 12″ round, or oval… remember, this is rustic! The edges don’t even need to be trimmed. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (A good trick to get your parchment to lie flat if it’s curling up on you is to wad it up into a ball, and then flatten it out again. You can see the wrinkles in my parchment in the photos above.)
Combine the fruit with sugar and lemon juice. If I’m using apples I usually add some cinnamon as well, plus maybe a little brown sugar and a tbsp of flour.
Pile the fruit into the middle leaving about a 2 inch border all around, and then begin folding the edges over the fruit, crimping and pressing the dough together as you go. (one day I’ll post a video on this!)
Once the edges are all folded up, brush the dough with water and sprinkle some sugar on top. The water will help the sugar to stick. If you have a coarse sugar, that works best, but any kind will do.
Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour, till the crust is a nice golden brown. If your fruit is very juicy, some of the juices will run out onto the parchment. Not to worry. Strawberries in particular will do this. It won’t affect the flavor of the galette at all, and will add even more of that rustic, homemade look!
When you take it out of the oven, resist the temptation to dig into it immediately. It will benefit greatly from 5-10 minutes of resting, and you won’t burn the roof of your mouth. Serve with ice cream, or if you’re lucky to have a wonderful husband who will make some whipped cream for you, use that!