I have been utterly obsessed with strawberries recently. I’ve chomped my way through punnet after punnet. I’m not sure if they’re especially good at the moment, or if I’ve just gotten a sudden craving? Though I did hear that due to the lack of Wimbledon this year there’s an abundance of strawberries! So perhaps the posh ones they usually get have been making their way to my local supermarket 😉 Anyway I fancied adding them into a bake and thought this would be the perfect time to create a strawberry galette.
I always think they look so pretty and they’re basically a lazy tart as you don’t need to line a tin or worry about blind baking. Perfect when you just want to throw a quick dessert together; knowing that looking rustic is all part of the charm!
For the pastry I made pate brisee which is the fancy french name for shortcrust pastry. It is however, extremely short which is perfect for a galette as you want it to be light and flaky. You may be surprised by the amount of water in this recipe, but trust me. It will hold together – no soggy bottoms here! Just go with it and don’t scrimp on the hour freezing time. If you wanted you could take it to 1hr30mins just to make it a little easier when you’re rolling out.
There really isn’t much to the ‘filling’ of this galette – which is what makes it such an easy dessert to make. But you do need to follow these steps. Strawberries are a very watery fruit, and don’t have much natural pectin. (Pectin is a naturally occurring substance in fruits that acts as a thickener when heated with sugar, which is obviously helpful when making jam. That’s why you’ll need to buy jam sugar to make strawberry jam, as it includes the extra pectin required.) So for the filling you need to combine the strawberries with some cornflour, lemon juice and sugar before adding them to the pastry – this will help to thicken the juices that release.
The other step you need to follow is to spread a layer of ground almonds onto the pastry before topping with the strawberry mix. This will act as a barrier between your watery strawberries and your pastry base – keeping it nice and crisp! It also adds a subtle almond flavour to the galette, which complements the strawberries really well.
And voila! Aside from an egg wash, sprinkling of sugar and a few dots of butter on the filling (this helps the strawberries have a nice shine!) there really isn’t anything else to this. Super simple but super delicious! The galette is best served on the day its baked, but will last till the following day kept in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Let me know if you give this strawberry galette a try 🙂
Strawberry Galette
Ingredients
Pate Brisee
- 250 g plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 40 g caster sugar
- 125 g unsalted butter cold and cubed
- 125 ml water ice-cold
Filling
- 75 g ground almonds
- 1 lemon zest and juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour
- 350 g strawberries hulled and halved
- 50 g caster sugar
Glaze
- 1 medium egg
- 1 knob of butter
- caster sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- For the pastry: Add the flour, salt and caster sugar to a large bowl and rub in the butter by hand until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then pour in the water and knead slightly until you have a uniform dough – it will be very sticky! Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and place in the freezer for at least an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan and line a baking tray with baking paper. Remove your pastry from the freezer and roll out into a large circle directly onto the baking paper- it doesn’t matter too much how even the circle is, your galette can be rustic.
- For the filling: Spread the ground almonds onto the pastry in a even circle, making sure to leave roughly a 2inch gap round the sides.
- In a small bowl, mix the cornflour and lemon juice together to create a paste. Then pour this into a bowl with the strawberries, caster sugar and lemon zest and mix together thoroughly. Pile the strawberry mixture on top of the ground almonds, then fold the sides of the pastry up. You want to leave a decent amount of the strawberry mixture uncovered.
- For the glaze: Finally, beat the egg in a small bowl, and using a pastry brush wash over the pastry a few times. Sprinkle the pastry with some sugar and then add a few knobs of butter over the strawberry mixture.
- Bake for 35minutes until golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Leave on the baking tray to cool and enjoy slightly warm.
