Monday, May 16, 2011

Strawberry Banana Galette



My family and friends know me as a chocolate-cake-brownie dessert type gal.  90% of the time I am...nothing makes me happier than chocolate-cake-brownies-one-or-all-three-doesn't-matter-I-LOVE-IT!  Last night was one of the rare days where I was craving dessert of a different type.  I wanted something doughy, sweet, and tart.  Sitting on the couch thinking about what would be the perfect fix, my new Pies & Tarts book by Martha Stewart caught my eye.


Every time I see this book, I smile.  I had mentioned a while back to a coworker that I was looking for it, but had been unsuccessful at finding it in a store.  She happened to see it at Costco a couple weekends ago and picked it up for me!  My new favorite Martha book greeted me at my desk on a Monday morning- best way to start the week ever!

So I'm flipping through Pies & Tarts and thinking man, I don't have the ingredients for any of these things. As I was reading through the freeform section I decided to try a galette, and try putting my own spin on it with fruit I had in the house.  With some strawberries that weren't going to last much longer and bananas that were in the same boat (har har) came my creation- Strawberry Banana Galettes.

Mine looks nothing like Martha's, but it tasted great and definitely hit the spot.  A galette is a simple pate brisee with fruit filling.  It's meant to look a little rough around the edges, and served hot with a nice scoop or two of vanilla ice cream on top, it tastes like a personal open-faced pie. Perfect rainy night treat.

What type of dessert person are you? Chocolatey? Fruity? Or none at all? I noticed I have a fair amount of readers- would love to hear from you!

Strawberry Banana Galettes
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Mini Rhubarb & Raspberry Galette recipe

Need:
-Pate Brisee (make enough for one 9" pie crust, or check out my recipe below)
-All purpose flour for dusting
-1 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
-1 medium chopped banana
-1/8 cup cornstarch
-1 cup granulated sugar
-coarse sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Do
- Divide dough evenly into 2 pieces.  Roll out each piece to approximately 7" round, 1/8" thick.  Transfer rounds to a parchment-lined cookie sheet, several inches apart.  If these feel soft at all, REFRIGERATE!  I didn't, and it led to the galette fail that I will show you below.

- In a large bowl, combine strawberries, bananas, cornstarch and sugar.  Toss to coat evenly.



- Split the berry mixture evenly between both rounds.  Leave at least 1" border, I left about 2-3".  Gently fold the edges up around the fruit mixture.  Make sure to leave a hole in the middle.  Gently brush the folds with water and press to connect them.  Refrigerate again about 30 minutes until firm.  Again- I neglected to do this and got a galette fail.  



- Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and brush cold galettes with water, then sprinkle with sanding sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes- crust should be golden brown.  Reduce heat to 375 for about 15 minutes more, until juices are bubbling.  Martha says to let cool completely.  I say, serve hot (and eat carefully!) with a hefty scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Get ready for a warm, ooey gooey delicious single-serve bowl fulla pie.  



If you're dying for dessert and decide to skip the refrigeration parts of this recipe, fear not, you will still have a delicious treat!  It will just expand and maybe not be so pretty...


Don't say I didn't warn ya!

Now, if you need a pate brisee recipe, here's Martha's, reworked by moi to make just enough for 2 mini galettes:

Need
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 stick cold, unsalted butter cut into small pieces
1/4 cup ice water

Do:

-Whisk together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl



-Add butter and mix around so all of the butter pieces are coated in flour.



-Quickly cut in butter with a pastry cutter until mixture resembled coarse meal, with larger pieces remaining.



-Drizzle with 1/4 c. ice water and mix together with a fork until mixture starts to come together.  If dough is too dry, add another 1/4 c. ice water.

-Divide dough in half onto two pieces of plastic wrap. Gather each into a ball, wrap loosely in plastic, and then flatten into a disc.



-Refrigerate at least 1 hour for best results.  (I put mine in the freezer for 15 min. and you can see the results above.  Coldness is key!)


2 comments:

  1. I love chocolate desserts as well, but this could win me over... especially with a little drizzle of chocolate on top. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This looks delicious! Thanks for your sweet comments on my blog :)

    ReplyDelete