My big old aluminum flea market colander is bursting with berries in the fridge, and I’ve already had strawberries with lunch yesterday, for dessert last night, breakfast this morning, and lunch today. What will we do with all of these berries?
Any other time, it wouldn’t be a challenge, but our rental house is in a strange state. We’re leaving for New England in a week, and for Rome in about two months, so we’ve been packing. Some of the boxes already in storage contain all of my baking dishes and appliances. But I had to do something with these berries! I hadn’t packed a few things, including a bit of flour and sugar, and an odd-sized round Pyrex, so the task became obvious: galette!
Strawberry Galette
The sweet pastry recipe I like best is Nancy Silverton’s, from her wonderful Pastry from La Brea Bakery. Since I’ve already packed the cookbooks, I dredged it out of my memory, and cut it in half. Roughly, it goes like this:
Combine in a food processor or in a bowl with a pastry cutter:
1 ¼ cup flour
2 tbs. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
7 tbs. butter
Mix together in a small bowl:
1 large egg yolk
½ tsp. vanilla
2-3 tsp. milk
Then mix the wets into the dries until just combined, working the dough lightly with the pastry cutter. Turn it out onto the counter and fold it and push it to flatten the butter bits, then shape it into a disc, roll it out to the right size, and chill it.
While it chills, let the berries steep in sugar for awhile. Jack and I cut berries (he used a little cheese knife) and tossed them in a bowl with ¼ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of flour, a few gratings of nutmeg, and a splash of almond extract.
Normally, a galette would be made on a sheet, but we had only this casserole, and it worked out well since the berries were so juicy. Now I have to go get some cream!
The Roving Locavore 