Are you pie crust-challenged? I was for years. I won't tell you how many pie doughs ended up in the trash. Never even made it to the oven. Recipe after recipe. Then I found this dough that, for some reason, worked! (Thank you David Lebovitz!). And it's delicious!
Ok - I didn't actually make a pie with it - I made a galette. But I'm thinking this wonderfully delicious dough can be used for a pie too. A galette is simply a rustic looking pie - a helpful alternative for the pie crust-challenged.
Oh - did I mention it's a wheat dough?
No problemo. Just converted it to gluten-free and it's all good. Really good. Like, I want to make one every day Good.
What a gluten-free dough will never be? Really flakey. I guess you really need the gluten for that. But it can still be quite delicious. I like to bake it as long as I can to get it crisp. This gives it a rustic look, still with a wonderful buttery taste.
I have made this galette with several different fruits - peaches in the summer, apples or pears in the winter, and sometimes a combination. Throw a few cranberries on it for holiday cheer if you want.
Sometimes I bake it on a stone, sometimes not. More about that later.
I usually make it with a concentric design - I just like the way it looks. But you can cut up your fruit and just pile it on if you want to. Here it is in process just to give you an idea (sorry for the bad lighting/photo). Still more fruit to add.
This one was going to be baked on a cookie sheet. So to prevent the bottom from getting soggy from the fruit, I spread a little apricot jam on the bottom, and then sprinkled it with almond meal. If I was going to bake this on a hot baking stone, I would not have added anything to the bottom. The heat from the stone would keep it from getting soggy.
Before we get to the recipe, here are some techniques I like to use.
- Whether I'm baking on a stone or a sheet pan, I always roll it and bake it on parchment. That makes it easier to move from here to there and back to here again.
- Sprinkle a good amount of your GF flour on to the parchment before you start to roll. This dough can be a little sticky/fussy (but definitely doable!).
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and roll it out on the plastic. This prevents the dough from sticking to the rolling pin, because you're rolling on plastic.
- I roll the dough as thin as I possible can and still be able to fold it without tearing (well, without too much tearing). If it tears when you're folding it over, just take some of the scraps and/or pinch it together. It will still look beautiful after it's baked. I find the thin dough gets crispy more easily, while still puffing up a bit.
- Before I start adding fruit, I move the dough (on the parchment) to whatever I'm going to be baking it on. It's a lot easier to move it without the fruit than with the fruit! (ask me how I know :-)
- Before I add my fruit, I trim the edges to make it look somewhat like a circle (since I never end up with a circle when I roll). It doesn't have to be perfect.
- Once you're done adding your fruit and folding over the edges, trim your parchment paper to a circle a little larger than the galette.
Sweet Galette Dough (makes 2)
- 11 1/4 oz of your favorite Gluten-free flour (This is approx 2 1/2 cups)
- 1-2 Tbs sugar or your favorite sweetener, or none at all!
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum (probably can make without this)
- 8 oz COLD unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces (I cut it up, and stick it in the freezer while I'm getting everything else ready)
- 5 oz ice water
- Jam, egg wash (egg + a little water mixed), milk, etc for glaze.
- A little more sugar (optional), before baking
Filling Ingredients for 1 galette:
- For this galette, I used 3 large Granny Smith apples.
- A little lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 - 2 Tbs sugar or your favorite sweetener
- Cinnamon to taste
- Ginger to taste
- Other flavors to taste
- A little all fruit sugar free jam, warmed (optional)
Directions for Dough:
(This is pretty standard for pie doughs)
- In a food processor, add flour, sweetener, and salt. Pulse about 5 times to blend. (If you don't have a food processor you can make by hand in a bowl).
- Add cut-up cold butter, and pulse a few times to blend the butter. You should still be able to see small pieces of butter throughout the flour.
- Add in about 4 oz of the water all at once. Pulse until the dough starts to come together. Add a little more of the water as needed for the dough to come together.
- Turn the dough onto floured board, and shape it into a ball, pressing any loose crumbs in.
- Divide in two, and shape into discs. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, and up to 3 days.
- When you're ready to make your galette, preheat the oven to 425 F. If you're baking on a stone, preheat the stone for at least 1/2 hour.
- Roll the dough out on floured parchment paper to the desired thickness, as described earlier. Trim as needed to get a circle, using the scraps to patch holes or to even out the circle.
- Move the dough to the baking pan you'll be using.
- Add jam and/or grounds nuts first (unless you're baking on a stone), leaving about 2 inches around the edges. Add prepared fruit.
- Carefully fold the edges of the dough over the fruit, working your way around the circle. Don't worry if the dough tears - just press it together or patch it.
- Optionally, brush a little warm jam over the fruit. This gives it a nice flavor a helps keeps the fruit moist (some apple varieties tend to be drier than others).
- Optionally, brush a little egg wash, or milk, or agave, or warm jam over the folded edge. This helps it brown nicely.
- Optionally, but really nice, sprinkle a very little bit of sugar around the folded edge. This adds a little crunch to the crust if you like that sort of thing (I do!).
- Bake at 425 F for about 15 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 400 F. Bake until it's nice and brown. For me that's usually 50 - 60 minutes.
- Cut up apples into thin wedges (maybe 1/8" - 1/4"). While your cutting the apples, squeeze some lemon juice over the cut wedges to prevent browning.
- Add vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and other flavorings to the apples and toss.
- Arrange on dough in concentric circles, or any pattern you want, leaving about 2" at the edge of the dough.
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