Italian Plum Galette

After becoming obsessed with Italian plums from this month’s pie, I made a pact with myself to use them in a bunch of other things.  Crumble tarts, galettes, upside down cakes, the possibilities were endless.

So you can imagine my dismay when they were no longer at the market.  I thought I had missed the boat until I decided to hit up the Bloor and Borden farmer’s market when I found myself in the neighbourhood, and lo and behold I found probably the last batch of plums around. It was galette time.

This galette is largely based on my plum pie, except I decided to forgo the allspice for the softer flavour of cardamom (basically my favourite spice in fall pies).  I’m finding that galettes are the ultimate freeform dessert and are so easy to experiment with.  No lemons?  Try lime juice.  Throw in some weird spices and see what happens.  Try a thin smear of Nutella or frangipane underneath the fruit for a little something extra.

The galette knows no bounds!

Crust Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (straight from the fridge, cut into 1 inch pieces)
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 tbsp vinegar (I use cider vinegar, mix it in the water)

Filling Ingredients

• 6-8 Italian plums, halved and sliced
• Big squeeze of lemon juice
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of ground cardamom
• Pinch of sea salt
• Egg wash to coat (1 egg and 1 tsp water mixed) and raw sugar for sprinkling

Steps

To make the crust, mix together flour, sugar and salt.  Using a pastry blender, “cut” in the butter. This means you’re almost mashing the butter into the flour with the blender, ensuring all butter is covered in flour until the butter pieces are about the size of peas or a bit bigger.

Then, splash in a bit of your water mixture (2-3 tablespoons) and mix it around with your hand.  Continue to add a little at a time and mix and squish with your hand until a large dough ball forms.  If you need to get a bit more binding, add a bit of water to your fingers to help it along.  Don’t feel compelled to use all the water, mix it in until just combined and the dough is holding together. Flatten dough into a disk and wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Roll out pie dough into a rectangle with about 1/4 inch thickness and carefully transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate while making filling.

To make filling, toss plum slices with lemon juice, sugar, honey and spices.  Remove dough from fridge and sprinkle it with about a teaspoon each of flour and sugar to keep the bottom crust crisp. Arrange plum slices as you like, leaving at least an inch between the plum slices and dough edge.

To seal the filling in the galette, carefully fold the dough edge over the plums, pinching the bottom edge of the galette to make sure it all stays together.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle pastry with raw sugar for garnish.

Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes, until pastry is set and beginning to brown.  Reduce heat to 375F and bake for 30-35 minutes until pastry is brown and juices are bubbling.  Allow to cool for 1-2 hours.