Rooting for galette

You know that sinking feeling you have when you come home from a short trip and realize you forgot to use or put away perishable stuff before you left? That’s how I felt the other day when I discovered a tightly wrapped package of galette dough in the fridge.

It was a diminutive package, just trimmings really. Leftover from an apple galette I had made the weekend before Election Day. Which means that it was almost two weeks old by the time I found it. Conventional wisdom says you are supposed to use or freeze fresh dough within a couple of days or it becomes unmanageable (maybe even rancid?.) However it seemed such a waste to chuck it (plus what’s not to like about galette dough suddenly falling in your lap, figuratively speaking) that I decided to put conventional wisdom to the test. Filling-wise, since the fridge was mostly empty, I went for what I had: root vegetables (a bit of celery root, one carrot, one parsnip, one tiny beetroot and some onion I had just caramelized for a chicken dish).

The dough was my run-of-the-mill (no pun intended) one (100% sprouted whole wheat). The filling was left over egg wash plus one egg mixed a tablespoon of milk, fresh goat cheese, a lot of freshly ground pepper, salt and some grated nutmeg. Looking back,  I should perhaps have gone for crumbled blue cheese or even grated smoked Gouda. Root vegetables have an in-your-face kind of attitude and they could probably have used a more assertive sidekick.

But hey, there is always next time. The bottom line is that galette dough is super easy to make (see the recipe), it keeps well and it is convenient to have around when you want something to go with a green salad for a light dinner. The sky is the limit as to what you can put in it. The only thing to remember is to prevent leaks and a soggy crust by “waterproofing” the bottom before adding the filling. Painting it with egg wash and adding a layer of cornmeal does the trick.

Sprouted Wheat Galette Dough

 

Save Print

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

Ingredients

• 215 g sprouted wheat flour
• 100 g butter, very cold and diced
• 85 g water (less if you use all-purpose flour, more if your flour is more thirsty than mine), ice cold
• 3 g of salt

Instructions

1. Put flour and salt in the food processor and pulse once or twice
2. Add the butter and pulse a a few times until the butter and flour form pea-size pieces
3. Slowly add the water and mix until a dough forms
4. Shape in a circle, wrap in plastic and put in the fridge for about an hour

Notes

These proportions will yield enough dough for one very large galette (11-inch) or two medium ones (9-inch) or, as is the case here, one 10-inch one and a very small one (I didn't measure, just used up all the leftover dough.)

This galette dough is adapted from a recipe I saw in Carla Bartolucci's excellent book on einkorn. I have used it already with many different kinds of grain and it never disappoints. The einkorn version is marvelous as well.

3.5.3208

Dough circle

Transferring the dough

Brushing with egg/milk mixture

Adding cornmeal (for waterproofing) and ground yellow mustard (for flavor)

Adding caramelized onions

Adding grated root veggies

Adding thinly sliced raw beetroot

Closing the galette, painting the edges with egg wash and adding black sesame seeds

Baked

Ready to eat

Next up: a pear galette. Because fall is in full swing at the farmers’ market and color rules! Plus it will be an adaptation from a Texas recipe and I am eager to see how it turns out.

A red crimson pear