SPICED PEACH & BLUEBERRY GALETTE

After I made this pie, I had two handfuls of pre-made puff pastry scraps leftover. I will never let anything go to waste. So the galette enters the group chat.

I hate the term galette.

It’s basically just a free-form version of a pie but for some reason, food bloggers ran with it over the past couple of years and for a while, I got sick of seeing it. You couldn’t open a cookbook, click on a blog, or scroll through an Instagram feed without seeing smiling American white women holding their galettes triumphantly. But alas, I can only fight something for so long before I concede, that a galette is actually one of the safest fall-back sweet treats in the kitchen.

Reason being is that there are no solid rules in place. Depending how much pastry you have, you could make a mini one for yourself, or dedicate the whole roll of pastry to the cause and make one, big-ass galette for the table. It really is a flexible bake and because you can prepare the majority of it beforehand (the filling can sit in a bowl and the pastry can sit, already shaped, in the fridge) then it’s a fantastic staple to have on-hand.

As for fillings, the only reason why I have used peaches here is because I had a tin of them in the cupboard. But fresh peaches, sliced and cored would also be wonderful (and better, to be honest). You could also use two small apples, slicing and coring them (don’t bother to peel) instead of the peaches, swapping out the blueberries for any frozen berry (blackberries are great with apples). You could also go with sliced pears and frozen raspberries, and I have used this combination before and added a little pinch of ground cardamom to the mix.

I like to keep a pairing of whole sliced fruits and smaller rounded berries because it’s the combination of the sliced fruits crunch and the small berries bursting, juicy softness that give a wonderful varied texture against the buttery crunch of the pastry. If you want to only go with one, I would say to go with the crunchier sliced options (peach/apple/pears) instead of the softer berries but that’s just a preference!

Plus, when you can keep a bag of frozen berries in the freezer for easy grabbing, I don’t see why you couldn’t go for both!

Serves 4 – 6

1 circle of pre-made puff pastry

1 x can peaches in syrup

A handful of frozen blueberries

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons soft brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cornflour

1 tablespoon jam – homemade recipe here or premade

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 egg

1. If you’re using off-cuts of puff pastry for this, gather the cuts into a ball and on a lightly floured surface, roll out the ball into a disk, roughly 10 – 15″ in diameter. Don’t worry at all if it’s not a perfect circle and the edges are all uneven and rough.
2. Line a baking tray with some baking parchment, carefully transfer the pastry disk to the baking tray and slip this in the fridge.
3. Drain the peaches and tip into bowl and add in the frozen blueberries. Scatter over the cinnamon, soft brown sugar and the cornflour and toss the contents of the bowl so that the peaches and blueberries are evenly coated. You can now leave both the fruit in their bowl and the pastry in the fridge until you’re ready to use.
4. When you’re ready to use, preheat the oven to 200C and take the pastry out of the fridge.
5. Spoon the jam into the centre of the pastry leaving a rough 2” border and then place the fruit on top of the jam.
6. Scatter 1 teaspoon of the granulated sugar over the fruit along with a tiny pinch of salt.
7. Now fold the edges of the pastry all the way around the fruit, tucking just slightly over the fruit to hold them into place.
8. Crack and beat the egg in a small cup of bowl and using a pastry brush (or your fingers!) wet the pastry border around the fruit. Sprinkle over the remaining teaspoon of granulated sugar and a little salt.
9. Transfer the baking tray to the hot oven and bake the galette for 30 – 35 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the blueberries are hot and bursting.
10. Serve with lashings of double cream or some vanilla ice cream.