This recipe has had a long journey. Originally, my Mom made a strawberry galette inspired by Ina Garten and lightened things up, but didn’t keep track of her changes. It was the best sweet treat I had had in months – maybe it was the taste of sweet strawberries and salty pastry that had me nostalgic for summer nights, but the flavours were so spot on and we were all fighting for leftovers. Soon afterwards I made this for an event of forty people and, given our audience, had to make it gluten, dairy and refined sugar free. Gluten free pastry is not easy, and when I made this at a cooking class I had to remind them how rustic their version (and mine!) would turn out. That said, if you are OK with a few rough edges, anyone can make this. Fresh out of the oven, this rustic summer tart paired with cold ice cream is all the good things – sweet and salty, hot and cold.
Strawberry season in Bermuda is coming to an end, but I would choose anything that looks good at your local grocery store – peaches, nectarines, raspberries, blueberries or even blackberries. Note that this recipes makes two small/medium sized galettes, which I found easier to work with, but you could make one extra large galette instead.
Ingredients:
For the Pastry:
2 cups of GF flour (I used 1 cup of brown rice flour, ¼ cup of almond flour, 3/4 cup of a gluten free flour blend)
1 cup of organic Earth Balance (or organic butter!)
½ tsp sea salt
¼ cup coconut sugar or sucanet
6 tablespoons cold water
For the Strawberries:
About 1 carton of strawberries (or 2 cups of chopped/sliced fruit)
1 tbsp. GF flour
1 tbsp. coconut sugar (or other)
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. lemon zest
Method:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Slice the strawberries and toss with the orange zest, juice, sugar and flour. Set aside.
Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse a few times to combine. Add the Earth Balance or butter and pulse 12 to 15 times, or until the butter is the size of peas. With the motor running, add the ice water all at once through the feed tube. Keep hitting the pulse button to combine, but stop the machine just before the dough comes together. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board, roll it into a ball, cut in half, and form into 2 flat disks. Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
For each galette:
Roll the pastry into a circle on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. GF flour is delicate, and rolling it on the parchment paper means you can then slide it right onto a cookie sheet to bake without the hassle of transferring.
Add the strawberry mixture and leave about 1 – 2 inches of pastry. With the understanding that GF flour is very delicate, fold over the sides. You may need to piece things back together again.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes.
