Yesterday, my aunt's friend (who is basically is my aunt as well) texted me and asked if I wanted to join her for dinner and baking. I didn't have any plans for the evening (other than mowing and I couldn't get the mower to start anyways) so I immediately responded yes! The menu was exactly what I was craving yesterday, a good piece of steak and a big side of kale salad. If anyone was following me on pinterest yesterday, you saw my cravings there too! After dinner was made and eaten, she asked me if I wanted to try making a galette. I had never heard of this, so of course my baker side said of course!
That's what it looked like in the Food Network Magazine. Very perfect and yummy. The name of this dessert is Grape Galette with Almond Cream.
I would say I'm southern at heart- at least my taste buds are.
Here's the reasons why:
-I don't like Midwest BBQ, but love Southern BBQ
-Give me collared greens and hush puppies and I'm good
-I am in love with grits, I would have them anytime, any day
-I love nuts, vanilla, and butter! (who doesn't?!)
-Butter Butter Butter!!!
So when I saw that the recipe called for butter, homemade pastry, homemade almond cream, I was totally in.
Instead of using grapes (there's nothing wrong with grapes) we used cooking cherries from her cherry tree. When I started mixing the dough, Robin brought out 2 cups of cherries from the freezer and added sugar to them in a bowl. We then let them sit while we made the dough, chilled the dough, and made the almond cream.
Ingredients
Crust:
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
5 Tablespoons of Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
10 Tablespoons of really, really cold unsalted butter. Cut into small pieces
1 Large egg yolk for brushing.
Almond Cream:
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 Large egg yolk
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of finely grated lemon zest
Directions
Crust:
1. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Since we didn't have a food processor, we used a pastry cutter.
2. Add half the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
3. Add the remaining butter and pulse into pea-size pieces.
4. Add 1/4 cup of ICE water and pulse until the dough clumps together but has not yet formed a ball
5. Turn out the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap; pess into a disk and wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight. (We stuck it in the freezer for 20 minutes)
Almond Cream:
1. Pulse 1/2 cup of almonds, 1/4 cup of sugar, the egg yolk, butter, vanilla, and lemon zest in a food processor to make a paste (Again we didn't have a food processor so I used the pastry cutter and did it by hand)
2 Cups of Grapes (or in our case, cherries)
Galette:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degree F
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
3. Roll out the dough into a 12 inch circle (We did two 6 inch circles)
4. Transfer dough to the parchment paper lined pan
5. Spread the almond cream on the circle, leaving 2 inches on the edge clean
6. Add the cherries on top of the almond cream
7. Fold the edge of the dough over the edge of the fruit by about 2 inches
8. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (We missed this step!)
9. Lightly beat the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of water.
10. Lightly brush the dough with the egg wash, and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of almonds on top.
11. Bake for 40 minutes
That's what ours looked like done! Now ours doesn't look as perfect as the magazine picture, a little more rustic some would say, but they tasted so good. We cut the salt in 1/2 (was 1 teaspoon) and added more lemon zest. Honestly both great choices. As was sugaring the cherries because they were the perfect amount of tart and would've been too tart without the added sugar.
Today is my mom's birthday, and both of us daughters are out of town. However, my mom is coming to the lake with us this weekend, so there will definitely be some celebrating going on!
Look for my post tomorrow about what's in my carry on and the cocktail in the spotlight this week! Don't forget to comment below!
XOXO-Mandie