Last August, I published yet another galette recipe here on Alexandra’s Kitchen. With the birth of this sixth galette baby, I thought my galette family of recipes was complete, the collection including both sweet and savory characters with personalities ranging from citrus-scented to bourbon-spiked, their birthdays spanning the seasons. But last week, in preparation for a galette-making class I was teaching, I found myself facing this predicament: stone fruit, my favorite to use in this dessert, are not yet in season, but rhubarb, currently abounding at the market, is not everybody’s favorite. This left me with the berry category, a logical choice this time of year, but I had never made a galette with berries — shocking, I know — and, if I’m being honest, I was feeling a little daunted by the potential experiments before me: Would blueberries alone be boring? Would I need to use cornstarch? Lemon? If I used a variety of berries, what would be the optimal mix? In other words: How many darn galettes would I have to make before my class to get it right? It turns out just two! At the start of the week, I made one with all blueberries. Remembering a text and a photo from my cousin Kristina last summer, who had made a blueberry galette without cornstarch or lemon, I chose to do the same. It turned out beautifully — the berries didn’t release enough juices to warrant using a thickening agent, and because the berries in this recipe aren’t tossed with any sugar, it didn’t taste too sweet. That said, although it was delicious and quickly demolished, I found myself wanting more variety both in texture and flavor. And so on the night of my class, I made a galette with a mix of berries: equal parts blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, about a pound altogether. Friends! I know better than to pick a favorite child, but that gal was my favorite to date. The recipe is below. Hope you love her, too!
How to Make a Berry Galette: An Overview
There are three elements in this galette: the pastry, the frangipane, and the fruit. Let’s explore each one.
The Pastry
The food processor method shared here truly is foolproof — if you have struggled with pie dough in the past, please give this recipe and method a try. It is the only recipe I use for all of my pies, tarts, galettes, etc. — anytime I need a flaky, buttery pastry shell, this is the recipe I use. The pastry recipe comes from David Lebovitz, but I learned the method from a French woman, Caroline Cazaumayou. I’ve shared the story before, so I’ll briefly sum it up: Caroline makes her pastry in the food processor, pulsing the dough as minimally as possible, then uses a tea towel to shape the dough into a perfect round. This tea towel trick achieves two things:
The Frangipane.
Frangipane is an almond-flavored creamy filling made with ground almonds or, as here, almond flour, softened butter, sugar, eggs, and often some sort of flavoring such as vanilla, rum, or Bourbon. It’s a cinch to mix together, and in this recipe, you’ll make it in the food processor immediately after you make the pastry dough, no need to wash it in between 🎉🎉🎉 You can make this galette without the frangipane, though its inclusion makes for a particularly tasty galette. Not only does the almond flavor pair so nicely with the fruit, the creaminess adds a lovely textural element as well.
The Fruit.
As noted above, you can use any number of fruit in this recipe, but there is something really nice about the combination of blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries not only from a taste perspective but also visually and texturally. Unlike fruit pies, which often call for some sort of thickening agent such as cornstarch and some sort of acid such as lemon to balance the sweetness, galettes do not. Find links below to other galette recipes that use other fruits (and vegetables!).
5 More Galette Recipes to Make
Rhubarb-Frangipane Galette Peach-Frangipane Galette Peach-Frangipane Slab Galette Apple-Frangipane Galette Savory Galette with Corn and Tomatoes
I love serving this galette with vanilla ice cream or slightly salted whipped cream. See the notes in the recipe for how to make the whipped cream from scratch. To me this dessert is heaven. 4.9 from 52 reviews You can use this recipe as a guide, substituting in whatever fruit you love for the berries. Here are a few variations I love: rhubarb, peach, apple. To make whipped cream from scratch: Whip 1 cup heavy cream in the bowl of a stand mixer until soft peaks begin to form. (You can do this by hand, too, with a bowl and whisk.) Add confectioner’s sugar — start with 1/4 cup and add more to taste. Add a big pinch of sea salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla and beat to combine and until the peaks begin getting firmer. Taste — the mixture should be slightly sweet and the salt should be noticeable, though the whipped cream should not taste salty.
