galette — Annie & Alison: A Food Blog

I was legitimately nervous about making this galette, for the sole reason that the pictures of it in nothing fancy are gorgeous. The top crust looks so delicate and precise – there’s no way my galette could even closely resemble what Alison made.

Well, guess what. About half-way through the baking process, I decided not to care! I let my tendency to compare and harshly judge my own work go by the wayside. I was at my in-laws home with a lovely afternoon breeze passing through the screen door. My brother- and sister-in-law were in town, and I love their company. To let my petty pie crust fears get in the way of a lovely afternoon would simply violate all logical cost-benefit analysis. And if you’re a Varberg, cost-benefit analysis reigns supreme.

So I went to town on two pie crust rounds, utilizing King Arthur’s Gluten Free pie crust recipe. I’ve now made five of these crusts now, and the recipe continues to hold up well. While the dough chilled, I focused on pitting 2.5 lbs of cherries. That’s a LOT of cherries! It was a divine moment when I discovered that Michelle owned a cherry pitter… I didn’t even know that existed! Instead of halving each cherry and digging the pit out with my thumb, I just punctured each cherry with the pitter, which spit out the pit into a tiny bowl. But even with this modern contraption, the task took about 30 minutes to finish. I tossed the cherries with lime zest and sugar before setting them aside to roll out the dough.

Rolling pie dough takes patience and a willingness to stick it back in the fridge at a moment's notice. As soon as the dough starts to feel slightly too warm, it really needs to get cold again before trying to coax it along. I’m learning that pies are not something I can count on being finished in a certain window of time. They take the time they take, and so many external conditions affect that.

Once the first disk was ready, I spread a third-cup of tahini paste over the dough, leaving a sizeable border along the edges. The cherries followed suit. I cut out holes in the other dough as instructed, though I confess that I didn’t plan the spacing out very well. To be honest, I was quite distracted by the fantastic conversation I was having with Heidi, my new sis. She’s delightful. Even more delightful than pie. I placed the holey dough on top and folded the edges. The final touches include an egg wash for browning, sugar, and sesame seeds. The galette spends about a half hour at a higher temp, and 20 minutes at a lower temp. By the end, the crust should be a light golden brown.

I love cherries, so I enjoyed this one. The combination with tahini works, but it wasn’t my favorite. I wish everything was a little sweeter; the sourness of the cherries and saltiness of the sesame paste dominated the flavor. Even though some of the crust broke on top, I’m still proud of how this turned out. I’m growing, friends. And that feels really good.

121 recipes cooked, 104 to go.

Growing up in California, I had no idea of the sour power of rhubarb in desserts. I had no idea what rhubarb even looked like. But now that I know, I never want to live without it. Especially rhubarb paired with almond paste. Oh, baby.

This was my first time purchasing rhubarb and almond paste, and I needed help finding both. Almond paste was tucked away in a tiny box in the dessert aisle next to the sweetened condensed milk. Rhubarb was tucked away in the vegetable section because, surprise!, it’s a vegetable. It looks like extra long, red celery, and I bought 2.5 pounds of it, just like Alison told me to.

To make the galette, I first prepared the pie crust, which instead of using Alison’s The Only Piecrust, I made another disk of King Arthur’s gluten free pie crust. I was much more confident this time, thanks to coaching from Margaret for the Buttered Raspberry Hand Pies. I also gained assurance from the fact that galettes don’t need to look perfect – they can be misshapen and have craggy edges and no one will care, least of all me.

While the pie crust chilled in the fridge, I cleaned and sliced the rhubarb into thinner 4” to 6” pieces. Two and a half pounds of rhubarb is a lot of rhubarb, so this took a bit of time.

I rolled out the pie crust as far as I could without letting cracks form – about a 12” by 14” cir-rectangle (I made that up). Taking chunks of almond paste, I flattened them to thin disks in my hands (it got a bit sticky!) and arranged them to cover the dough with a 2” border on all sides. Then I laid out the rhubarb… about two-fifths of it actually. I have no idea how Alison can fit all that rhubarb into one galette, but I could hardly fit a pound. I’ve still got the remaining rhubarb in my fridge, which will likely become a cake soon. Or jam.

I folded the pie crust edges over the galette and sprinkled the top with sugar. Once again, I used less than the recipe called for – a fourth cup instead of a third.

The rhubarb galette was the perfect balance of tart and sweet. A fresher, butterier take on a sour patch kid, if you ask me. I can’t wait for next year’s rhubarb season.

This dessert accompanied other Alison recipes for another All-Out Alison meal: