Back in 2000, I clipped
out a recipe for a Santa Rosa Plum galette that appeared in the San Francisco
Chronicle. The recipe came from a Chez Panisse pastry chef, Mary Jo Thoresen, who
learned the dessert’s dough from the great Jacques Pépin when he spent a week
cooking at Chez Panisse. Thoresen claimed that “[i]f I was stranded on an
island with only one dessert, this [galette] would be the one.” Mighty high
praise indeed, especially from a Chez Panisse chef! I tried the recipe and, no
surprise, it’s brilliant. With different local fruits coming into season across
the country, there’s no better time to try this recipe. The galette serves 8.
The Dough
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 to 6 ounces cold
unsalted butter (see note)
Ice water
The Filling
8 to 10 firm-ripe Santa
Rosa plums
2 to 3 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons sugar, or to
taste
To Finish
Melted butter for brushing
Sugar for sprinkling on
crust
French vanilla ice cream
To make the dough: Combine
the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and add
to the flour. Work in the butter with a mixer or by hand until the pieces are
the size of tiny peas. Add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing and mixing
gently by hand until the dough is moist but not sticky.
Wrap the dough in plastic
and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, but preferably overnight.
Roll out the dough to a
12-inch diameter circle on a floured surface. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly
round; the tart is beautiful no matter what shape it is. Transfer the dough to
a parchment-lined pizza pan or baking sheet. Cover with plastic and
refrigerate.
To finish the galette:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Halve and pit the plums. Cut each into 5 or 6
slices.
Remove the dough from the
refrigerator. Leaving a 2-inch border, sprinkle the surface of the dough with 2
to 3 tablespoons flour and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Place the plums slices on
the dough. You can arrange them artfully or place them helter-skelter; either
way, it will look lovely.
Carefully draw up the
dough from the sides and fold it over to form the rim. Make sure there are no
cracks where juices can run out during baking. Brush the rim of the dough with
melted butter and sprinkle generously with sugar. Sprinkle the plums with the
remaining 4 tablespoons sugar, or more, depending upon sweetness of plums.
Bake until well-browned
and bubbly, about 40 minutes, rotating as needed so the tart browns evenly.
Transfer to a cooling rack
so the bottom of the crust doesn’t get soggy. Use a pastry brush to dab the
plums with plum juice to glaze them while still hot.
Serve the galette warm
with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The recipe’s note comes
from the Chronicle’s testers. It reads: When we tested this recipe, we used 6
ounces of butter to make the pastry. Although the finished crust was rich,
flaky, buttery and totally delicious, it was difficult to roll out. Using 4
ounces of butter produces dough that is easier to work with, although it is not
quite as rich.
Let me conclude with a few
recommendations, observations and notes of my own. Don't forgo this galette if
you cannot find Santa Rosa plums; the recipe works equally well with peaches, nectarines,
cherries, apples, all sorts of berries, rhubarb, figs, apricots, quince and…well,
you name it. Feel free to pair favorite fruits: peach and raspberry; rhubarb
and strawberry; or nectarine and blackberry. I particularly love an apple and
quince galette. I have made hundreds of different fruit galettes using the
above recipe; the only tricky part is dosing the sugar relative to the
sweetness of one’s chosen fruit(s). More often than not I follow the
Chronicle’s note and use 4 ounces of butter. The finished galette turns out
rich enough for my taste. On average I use about 3 to 4 tablespoons of ice
water to bring the dough together. And if I don’t have any vanilla ice cream in
the freezer, I top off my slice of galette with either whipped cream or crème
fraîche.
