Rustic Savory Galette N 3



This recipe comes from Wood-Fired Cooking: Techniques and Recipes for the Grill, Backyard Oven, Fireplace, and Campfire by Mary Karlin. We modified the recipe a bit to suit our tastes and then adapted it for cooking in a ceramic cooker. We hope you enjoy it!

So what is a galette? "Galette" is a general term used in French to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes or tarts. (We thought it sounded more posh than "tart".) Less formal than the classic precisely fluted French tart, galettes consist of a thin layer of some sort of filling baked on top of a buttery, crisp crust. Instead of the straight, rigid sides you get from a tart pan, the edges of a galette are just folded over onto the filling. Sounds perfect for cooking in a wood-fired oven, or in our case, a ceramic charcoal cooker.


The Tomatoes
The main ingredient in the filling are the tomatoes. If you can find them, use half and half red and yellow heirloom tomatoes.

  • 1½ pounds yellow heirloom tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch slices
  • 1½ pounds red heirloom tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch slices
  • kosher salt
  • paper towels
  • Slice the tomatoes into ¼-inch slices and then lay them out in a single layer on paper towels. Sprinkle lightly with salt and cover with another layer of paper towels. While you prepare the other components of this galette, you will probably want to replace the paper towels with new towels, as the tomatoes will produce quite a bit of liquid. You can press lightly on the tomatoes to coax a bit more liquid out of them. You don't want your galette to turn into a soup bowl by failing to drain the tomatoes.


    Tomatoes laid out on paper towels to drain. After this photo was taken
    we placed another layer of paper towel on top. We also changed both layers
    of paper towel one time while preparing the dough and filling.


    Setting Up The Cooker
    At some point, you want to set up your cooker to get it ready to bake the galette. The setup we used was a large Big Green Egg cooker, a plate setter sitting legs down on the fire ring, and a 14" pizza stone sitting on top of the plate setter. Because we sometimes are lame, we forgot to take a photo of the setup, but essentially you want to set your ceramic cooker up like you would to cook pizza. We let the cooker preheat for about an hour at 350° F in order to allow the stone to get up to temperature.


    The Dough

  • 1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
  • 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 3 Tbsp fresh goat cheese, at room temperature

  • 1½ cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup fine yellow cornmeal
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • 4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 1-2 Tbsp cold water

  • To make the dough:

    1. Combine the corn, goat cheese and lime juice in a food processor and process until you have a smooth creamy mixture.
    2. Combine the flour, cornmeal and salt in a large bowl and blend with a fork or whisk.
    3. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal.
    4. Add the wet corn mixture and 1 Tbsp of the water to the flour/butter mixture and combine to form a soft dough. If the dough is too dry and won't come together, add a second Tbsp of water and combine.
    5. Knead the dough 3-4 times.

    Dry ingredients for rustic savory galette.
    The dry ingredients for the dough.
    Wet ingredients for rustic savory galette.
    The wet ingredients for the dough.
    Wet ingredients for rustic savory galette after processing.
    The wet ingredients for the dough after processing.


    To shape the dough:

    1. Lay two strips of plastic wrap side by side to form one wide layer of plastic.
    2. Place the dough on the plastic wrap and cover with a second layer of plastic, also formed by using two side by side strips. (This is, of course, unless you can find 15-inch wide plastic wrap!)
    3. Press the dough together into a 6-inch hockey puck.
    4. Roll the hockey puck out into a 14-inch circle. You may find that the upper layer of plastic is getting caught beneath the dough as you roll the dough out towards the edge. If so, just carefully pull the edges of the plastic away from the center and out from under the dough.
    5. Place the dough, still between the two plastic sheets, on an upside-down baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for 45 minutes.

    Rustic savory galette dough formed in the bowl.
    The dough formed in the bowl.
    Rustic savory galette hockey puck.
    The dough formed into a "hockey puck."
    Rustic savory galette dough rolled out into 14-inch circle.
    The dough rolled out into a 14-inch circle.


    The Filling

  • ½ cup shredded fresh basil leaves
  • ½ cup shredded Italian fontina cheese
  • 1 Tbsp minced fresh oregano leaves

  • 4 Tbsp fresh bread crumbs
  • ½ tsp kosher salt, plus more for seasoning

  • ¼ cup fresh corn kernels, about ½ an ear
  • 4 cloves of garlic crushed
  • 3 bulb green onions, about 1" diameter, the white part sliced very thin, separated into rings
  • ¼ cup crumbled crispy bacon

  • ¼ tsp cracked black pepper

  • 1 egg, beaten, for wash
  • ½ coarse sea salt

  • ¼ cup crumbled fresh goat cheese
  • 1 tsp finely shredded basil leaves
  • To make the filling:
    1. In a small bowl combine the basil leaves, fontina cheese and oregano leaves.
    2. In another small bowl, combine the bread crumbs and the ½ tsp of kosher salt.
    3. In another small bowl, combine the corn kernels, crushed garlic, sliced onion, and bacon.


    Assembling the Gallete

    To prepare the dough for filling:

    1. Remove the dough/baking sheet from the refrigerator and place on a counter top.
    2. Carefully remove the top layer of plastic from the dough.
    3. Place a sheet of parchment paper, large enough to cover the dough, over the exposed dough. It's ok if a small section of dough extends over the parchment.
    4. Turn the baking sheet over and remove the baking sheet from the dough. You should now have the dough resting on the parchment paper and covered with plastic.
    5. Carefully remove the plastic wrap.
    To fill the galette:
    1. Arrange the cheese mixture on the dough, leaving a 1½-inch border.
    2. Sprinkle with half of the bread crumb mixture.
    3. Arrange half of the tomatoes, overlapping slightly, on top of the cheese and bread crumbs.
    4. Spread ½ of the corn/garlic/onion/bacon mixture over the tomatoes.
    5. Sprinkle the remaining bread crumb mixture over the filling.
    6. Arrange the remaining tomatoes in a second layer, again overlapping slightly.
    7. Lightly sprinkle with kosher salt.
    8. Arrange the remaining corn/garlic/onion/bacon mixture on top.
    9. Sprinkle with the cracked black pepper.
    To finish the galette:
    1. Fold the edges of the dough up and over the tomatoes, towards the center of the galette, pleating as you go.
    2. Press gently to help the folds seal.
    3. Brush the edges of the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sea salt.

    Rustic savory galette cheese bread crumbs basil and oregano.
    The first layer of cheese, basil, oregano and bread crumbs.
    Rustic savory galette tomatoes onions corn garlic.
    The filling in place, ready to fold up the edges."
    Rustic savory galette on the peel ready for the cooker.
    The galette has been formed and is ready for the cooker.


    Baking the Gallete

    1. Slide the assembled galette on parchment paper onto a baker's peel or other flat item such as a baking sheet.
    2. Trim the parchment if necessary to fit it into your cooker.
    3. Bake for 20 minutes.
    4. Remove the galette from the cooker and top with the crumbled goat cheese.
    5. Return to the cooker and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. If you find that one side is browning faster than the other, rotate the galette during baking.
    6. Remove from the cooker and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
    7. Sprinkle with the finely shredded basil.

    Halfway through the cook, open the cooker and add the goat cheese. Rotate if necessary.


    A Few Closing Notes
    In the photo below of the entire galette, you can see we didn't get the border even all the way around the galette. On the right side, you can see we had quite a bit more overlap than on the left side. Strive to make this even and more like the left side of the galette in the photo. This galette is more about the filling than the crust, so let the crust be a vessel to hold the filling and just overlap the edges enough to hold the filling.

    Sharp-eyed readers may ask themselves, "where's the bacon?" We must confess that the bacon was an idea that we thought of when tasting the galette. We thought it cried out for bacon, and next time, we WILL include some bacon.

    We enjoyed this galette with one of our favorite red wines. The galette is full of flavor, so pair it with the wine that you feel will go best with all that flavor! The galette can be an entree or an appetizer, as you see fit. Enjoy!


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