Actually, I don't know if this is true, but I am TOTALLY OBSESSED. You can make them sweet or savory, and it's basically the lazy person's pie. And making a delicious homemade thing LAZILY? Count me in!
This recipe: Rustic Plum Tart by Martha Stewart (more into savory? Check out this burst tomato galette)
How I changed it: I added 1 tsp lemon zest for some extra... well... zest!
Whenever I make a recipe from Martha Stewart, I curse her. How is she so clever and amazing? I won't ever forgive her for not being clever and amazing when she was convicted for securities fraud... Which I have hence looked up, and I'd have probably done the same thing in her place. So I'm going to let it go and accept that she is human. You go, Martha (... you go Glen Coco)!
OK - that's enough now.
Full recipe:
Crust:
- 1 cup all purpose flour (I weight mine, so that's 4.75 oz), plus some extra for when you roll out the dough
- 1/4 cornmeal
- 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 2-4 T ice water
Martha suggests using "fine yellow cornmeal" but I had white cornmeal (not fine) and I GREATLY enjoyed the end result. A "pleasing grittiness" as BFF put it. As in, best crust I've ever made and it might make it on my "make this crust forever" list. If you don't want a "pleasing grittiness" to it, feel free to throw your cornmeal into a food processor to make it finer.
Filling:
- 1.5 lbs red plums, pitted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 T all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Egg wash:
- 1 large egg yolk + 1 tsp water
My plums, from my friend down the way, were quite small (a little larger than a peach pit) so I just halved them, but if yours are larger (aka store bought size, generally), quarter them.
After you make the crust, it has to chill in the fridge for 1 hour. Don't worry, I hate waiting too. But if you don't wait, the butter will get too melty, and it will make your crust not as DELICIOUSLY FLAKY as this one will become if you wait. Waiting also makes it easier to roll out the dough, with less flour. Waiting is my #1 most hated (ethereal) thing in the world. But this is worth it. Don't worry, while it's cooling you can leisurely pit the plums, perhaps while watching your dog harass your cat, or listening to Jim Dale's performance of Harry Potter #4. I'm lucky and did both.
FIRST:
Martha says to do this in the food processor. This is one of those few times where I'm going to tell you to ignore her. Thanks to Deb on the Smitten Kitchen blog (and her AMAZING BOOK GOBUYITNOW) and some of my own (tragic) experience, making pie crust in a food processor rarely works. By the time you've worked the cold butter into the dry ingredients so you end up with a pea-sized bits in your coarse mixture, and then add in the cold water to bring it together as a dough? You've gone too far! Now the butter is thoroughly mixed in and your dough won't be nearly as flaky as if you'd done it by hand.
So we're going to do it by hand. It's going to be OK. My pastry blender is probably the worst on the planet, but I can still make yummy pie dough. You can too.
Whisk together your flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and use a pastry blender to work it all in together. You should end up with a coarse mixture with pea-sized bits in it. At this point add in your 2 T of ice water. If the first 2 T of ice water wasn't enough, add in another 1 T. You want the dough to be crumbly, but to hold together so you can form a ball of dough. Knead this a time or two, flatted the dough to create a disk about the size of your palm, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour.
DURING:
Time to pit your plums! See my previous comment about how doing this leisurely is quite nice.
SECOND:
WAITING IS OVER! Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Get the dough out of the fridge and flop it onto a floured work surface. More flour is better to keep this bad boy from sticking to your work surface and your rolling pin, but as always, only use as much as you need. Nothing is more depressing than baked goods with too much flour in them. Roll this puppy out to 14" or so. Martha suggests to press the edges of the dough with your knuckles so it doesn't crack during the rolling process. Because I don't read recipes thoroughly (or well, which BFF chides me about), I didn't do this. Instead, once the edges were all crazy cracked, I folded them back over and rolled my dough out again.
Transfer your dough to a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil to catch any yummy sizzling goo that may come out of your galette during the baking process. This makes cleaning up a breeze.
THIRD:
Prepare the filling: combine plums, sugar, flour, and lemon zest in a bowl, tossing the concoction well so everything gets coated and the sugar gets hydrated by the plum juice; pour this into the middle of your rolled out pie dough. Martha suggests leaving a 2 inch border all around, I left a 3-4 inch border (because I'm a rebel, obviously). Fold the border over the fruit in whichever way makes you smile - this generally means a pleated pattern. Whisk your egg yolk and water together - this forms your egg wash. Brush this over the dough (it gives the dough a nice glaze once it's baked).
FOURTH:
Pop the galette into the oven! Bake it for about 45 minutes, until the crust is browned and the filling is bubbling delightfully. Transfer your baking sheet to a cooling rack and let it cool for 20 minutes (please do wait for this, you don't want to burn your mouth on 400 degree sugary yumyum mixture).
FIFTH:
Proceed to shove it in your face. Share with friends if you can bring yourself to such a sacrifice. Or start eating it for breakfast and dessert and give half to a friend, since you were leaving down the next night for the weekend, like me! ...but it still hurt a lot to give half of it away, even if it was to BFF... or you can make another one, like I did last night. YUM.
This needs way more photos... guess I'll have to make it for a third time! Darn. ;)
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