blueberries « (y)our food choices™

Galettes are one of the easiest things to bake at home. It’s basically a rustic free-form pie. No edges to crimp. No exact measurements of the size and shape of the rolled out crust. And, no worries that the crust will fail and the juices from the pie will overflow. They’re supposed to bubble over a bit.

This recipe is easy to whip up any day of the week, and it’s delicious. We’ve used this recipe since the cookbook and PBS show, Baking with Julia, was first published. We’ve adapted the pastry recipe, omiting the original corn meal (we didn’t have any in the pantry!) and replacing it with oat flour. Oat flour always reminds us of steel cut oats and breakfast and we love it’s nutty flavor.

You can use just about any fruit in liu of blueberries. Exact measurments are unecessary for this style of baking. So have fun with it and include your currious budding epicures. These are hands-on treats!

Blueberry Galette
adapted from Baking with Julia

Pastry
3 tablespoons kefir or yogurt
1/3 cup ice cold water
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup oat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 14 pieces

11 ounces blueberries, rinsed, dried, and stems removed
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon turbinado sugar
2 tablespoon honey

Mix the kefir and water together, set aside.

In a food processor add the flours, sugar, and salt. Pulse a few times. Take off the lid and add all the butter. Pulse a few more time. You’ll want the consistency of very course sand. You may need to break the butter up with your hands a little. Through the feed tube, with the machine running add most of the liquid. Turn the machine off. Remove the lid and check to see if the dough comes together. If more liquid is needed, pour the contents out in a large bow and finish mixing by hand.

Divide the dough into two pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Squish until it becomes a round disc. Set in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Once the discs are chilled, Carefully unwrap the disc onto the plastic wrap and place another piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, moving the disc a quarter turn each roll, and flip the dough over and continue to roll. Roll the dough out to about 10 inch diameter, about 1/8 inch thick. Place the rolled dough onto a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Remove the disc from the freezer and remove one of the pieces of plastic. Place the disc on a parchment lined baking sheet with edges. Remove the other piece of plastic. Do the same with the second disc, on the same baking sheet or another one. Place half the blueberries in the center of each disc. Pinch off pieces of butter and put on top of the blueberries. Add a drizzle of honey and sprinkle 1/2 the sugar over the berries. Fold over the edges and press the sides in a little to form to keep its shape. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar around the edge of the pastry.

Place the tray in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven. Allow to cool before serving.

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Dessert doesn’t have to be laborious and time consuming to be delicious. While our typical dessert is just a handful of nuts and a little chocolate, there are times when our bounty of fruit is overflowing. Even though an apple or pear alone is a healthy alternative, we prefer to eat our fruit desserts with a little sugar and flour. Taking liberties with the Cook’s Illustrated Pear Crisp recipe, we’ve combined both of their alternatives to the standard recipe (Pear Crisp with Oat Topping and Triple Ginger Pear Crisp) and added a cup and a half of blueberries to the mix. The result is a simple, satisfying dessert with lots of fruit and lots of crumbly crisp topping.

: Blueberry, Pear Crisp

: https://yourfoodchoices.com/2012/03/09/pear-blueberry-and-ginger-crisp/

Pear, Blueberry, and Ginger Crisp

Topping:
1/2 cup almond, chopped coarsely
2 tablespoons crystallized ginger, coarsely chopped
½ cup flour
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
½ cup oats

Filling:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
pinch of salt
2 ½ pounds pears, peeled and diced (if organic you can leave the peel on)
1 ½ cups blueberries

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Topping: Process almonds, crystallized ginger, flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, ground ginger, and salt in food processor until nuts are finely chopped, about 9 pulses. Drizzle butter over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles crumbly wet sand, about 5 pulses. Scraping down bowl halfway through. Add oats and process until evenly incorporated, about 3 more pulses. Set aside.

Filling: Whisk sugar, orange zest, orange juice, cornstarch, grated ginger, and salt in a large bowl. Gently toss pears and blueberries with sugar mixture and transfer to 8-inch square baking dish.

Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit, breaking up any large chunks. Transfer baking dish to prepared baking sheet. Bake until fruit is bubbling around edges and topping is deep golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking dish to wire rack and let cool until warm, about 15 minutes. Serve.