Rustic Peach Apple Galette (Roll It. Pile It. Fold It. Bake It.)

The hands-on time for this dessert is under fifteen minutes. The result is unabashedly sublime. To gild the lily, a scoop of vanilla bean coconut ice cream served in a bowl with a slab of the galette, and all will be right with the world. I've noticed the supermarket slowly receiving "not-quite-seasonal-for-Missouri" produce. Last week there were the bing cherries and Georgia peaches. The cherries really tempted me. I cannot resist them once the full line of cherries arrive. But even I have standards. It's far too early for a decent cherry. But the peaches. . . they were in perfect condition. They had that peachy aroma. Plus they were displayed in individually slotted spaces in cardboard boxes. As if the shipping box was specifically designed just for the semi-long trip they had getting to Missouri from Georgia. I came home with two pounds. My impulse control was low, what can I say. 

Another errand that same day found me hunting for new size 8 knitting needles. I have a cheap aluminum pair I have been cursing over for several months while I work on the mitered crosses blanket. My version seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of frustrating time owing to the clunky needles. It's been nearly a year since I began working on said blanket and I've only finished 3.25 squares.

Ran into a small yarn shop in search of new needles and saw: All Yarn 50% Off! Need I say more? 

So back home with peaches, I began searching my mind for what might become of the peaches. We'd been enjoying fruited desserts for a week now. I don't know why, but I've been craving baked, buttery, fruit-filled items lately. I didn't have time to make a pie per se. Plus that would involve some "precision"--I was in no mood for precision. But my baking soul demanded some sort of pastry enclosed dessert. With only two hours before dinner, I settled on a galette. The word free-form sold me. 

Here's how: The basic premise of the galette is that you take a pre-made pastry crust that has been mixed and chilled for at least an hour. While the dough chills you can mix together whatever you'd like: berries, cherries, peaches, apples, pears. Cut about two peeled apples into chunks, then add one peach to that--unpeeled (because it is truly not worth the trouble to peel a peach in my opinion), add 2/3 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, juice of 1 lemon and a pinch of salt--after mixing all this--you just pile into the shell! What could be easier? The full recipe for the pastry I used was courtesy of Flo Braker from my cookbook, Baking with Julia. For the vegan version, use vegan sour cream (which worked beautifully). This was an incredibly simple-to-make pastry. And the results are worth the five minutes it takes to churn out the crust. Trust me. 

About a half hour before you are ready to bake the galette, preheat the oven to 425. Once the dough has chilled, combine BOTH halves (because Flo says to divide the dough and chill for two hours--I only had time for a 1 hour chill and it was fine). I didn't think one half of the dough was nearly enough to wrap around my fruit I'd prepared, so I combined the two halves and made one large galette. On a dusted counter top, roll all the dough to 1/4" thickness. Carefully lift the dough and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Toss the fruit and sugar and spices together and pour into the middle of the pastry. Then, lift the sides gently toward the middle of the circle, leaving a bit of the fruit to peek out. After you've finished this step, sprinkle a bit of sugar over the whole thing. Bake in 425 oven for 40 minutes or until the crust begins to brown. *I will caution you that the juices from the galette will leak out a bit--which is why lining the cookie sheet is handy. But don't fret, the galette and fruit, once cooled to room temperature, is all still very much edible.This won't last long so storage is not a problem. But if you find you can't eat it in one sitting, store in a cake or pie keeper at room temperature for two days.

Husband raved about this crust. Raved. He said it almost beat out my pie dough crust on the flavor/flakiness/tenderness scale. I had to agree. Flo calls for a bit of cornmeal in her recipe for this dough. It's a very wet, messy dough, but she declares in her notes that the dough will be, "soft, malleable. . .the kind you might want to overwork", which I took to mean, okay, STOP. WRAP. CHILL. And I did. And concur with DH. So much so, that I decided a second galette was in order for tonight.

Maybe this is why my mitered crosses blanket is taking so long to finish. Crocheting a new apron for myself. 

Saw this pattern in a book from JoAnn's and couldn't resist. Plus the colors make me happy. I need happy right now. Things have been a little rough lately.