I have a galette story, and it involves Jonathan Gold screaming. How many people can say that?
So, it’s not technically my galette story, but someone I know was there (and in my book that counts).
A few years ago a very talented pastry chef I admire was judging the KCRW pie contest at UCLA, along with other luminaries of the L.A. food scene including the L.A. Times’ food critic Jonathan Gold. At the end of the day, as the judges were honing in on their favorites, an all out philosophical war broke out … over pie.
My pastry teacher and the other judges were eager to give the “Best in Show” award to a delicious chicken pot pie galette — a sort of flat, free-form dessert in which the pie crust is hand-rolled over the edge of the filling before baking. Everyone agreed that it tasted divine; but, everyone did not agree that it was a “pie.”
When foodies get finicky, it isn’t always pretty, and when it comes to pastry it’s easy to lose oneself in the layers of detail. Must a pie have a top crust? Does it have to be baked in a dish? Should the crust be “pastry” and not too fluffy? As things got heated Jonathan Gold’s baritone shouts of “Thaaat’s not a pie!” boomed across UCLA’s Royce Hall.
According to Larouse Gastronomique, my food bible, the galette has been around in one form or another since very ancient times. It may have started as a mix of oats or cereal paste sweetened with honey, spread out and baked on hot stones, then folded inward.
In rural France, galettes have a particularly strong tradition; like pies they can be savory or sweet but their crust ranges from the consistency of biscuit to pancake. Fillings run the gamut from seasoned sliced potatoes or ham and cheese to sweetened nuts or jam.
So … is the galette a pie? Surely, the debate will rage on, but flavor is always a powerful ally in any fight. In the end, this particular chicken pot pie galette won out and got the prize, but Mr. Gold was never one to be silenced. After his passing last year, KCRW’s Good Food announced that the “Best in Show” pie award would henceforth be called, “Gold’s Greatest.”
In the tradition of Jonathan Gold and the somewhat non-traditional galette, we combined our favorite pastry pie crust recipe with a tangy mix of strawberries and golden plums a friend brought as a gift.
Life doesn’t always give you a pie tin and time to plan ahead; sometimes, the most delicious way forward is to go with what you’ve got on your counter and make a galette.
(See below for step-by-step photos.)
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Plum & Strawberry galette
4-5 firm plums
4 large or 8 medium strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
*Your favorite pie crust. We love the Master Pie Dough recipe from The Gourmandise School.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Thinly slice plums and strawberries.
- Combine fruit, lemon zest, and sugar in a bowl and let it sit. Gently sprinkle with the flour to coat.
- Meanwhile, roll out dough to about 1/8 – 1/4 inch thickness, in a rough circle about 12 inches in diameter and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Layer fruit in a spiral leaving an inch or two of dough all around. (You may have extra fruit mix and that’s OK. Don’t overstuff the galette.) Fold dough in sections from the outer edges toward the center, in a consistent fan pattern, until all edges are folded in.
- Bake until crust is golden brown. (Check and rotate after 20 minutes.)
TIME: 1 HOUR (NOT INCLUDING DOUGH). YIELDS 8 SERVINGS.
BAKING NOTES:
•While you might pre-cook berries or apples for a pie or galette, in our experience, stone fruits like plums are WAY too juicy and this will make your galette leak.
•Handling your fruit gently will also help retain the juice.
•Since the galette has exposed fruit in the center, with no top crust, it can sometimes dry out before the outer crust has browned enough. To avoid this, you can dot some butter on top of the exposed fruit, or cover the exposed portion with a tent of tin foil for the last 15 minutes or so of baking.
•You may have leftover fruit mixture. That’s OK. Better not to overstuff the galette or it will leak. Save your extra fruit, roll out more dough, and make another one to store in a bag in the freezer for baking later.
•WATCH your pie. Every oven is different, and bake times may change depending on how thick you rolled your dough or what type of fruit you used. So … keep an eye on it, and go with your gut.
