Sweet, juicy strawberries pair with tangy, vibrant rhubarb to create rustic galette that quite literally easier than pie!
Galettes: invented to make amateur bakers feel like pros. And provide all the benefits of pie, from the crust to the tender filling, without any of the fuss.
Think pie’s messier and more laid back and chill cousin. Requiring none of the precision to make, no carefully crimped edges or slit tops. The truly magical quality of a galette is the less perfect it is, the cooler it looks.
The classic spring strawberry-rhubarb pairing is elevated with the addition of dates, which also act as barriers between the fresh fruit juices to ensure we don’t end up with a soggy crust. Win-win situation.
Why this Recipe Works
- Easier than Pie. It’s pie’s easier, more laid back and rustic cousin, requiring none of the same precision to make.
- No soggy dough. The dates act like a barrier between the pastry dough and the strawberry and rhubarb juices.
- Open faced top. Exposes the fruit to the oven’s heat, allowing it to caramelize and concentrate its flavor.
- Rustic! The truly magical quality of galette! Pastry dough, with minimal shaping, is wrapped around fresh fruit, no precision or perfection necessary.
- All the Flavors. Sweet juicy strawberries pair with tangy, vibrant rhubarb and chewy caramel-y dates to make a galette bursting with spring flavor.
What is a Galette?
The term galette originated is France and comes from the French word galet.
Italian cooks use the term crostata instead.
It’s essentially pastry dough wrapped over a (sweet or savory) filling,
Think an open-faced, free-form, pie like pastry.
After rhubarb season has come and gone, you can apply the same technique with other seasonal fruits. Or savory fillings. The galette skies the limit!
How to Make this Strawberry-Rhubarb Galette
- Plan ahead - galette dough must chill a few hours in the fridge (and up to 24 or stored in the freezer for longer).
- Make galette dough. Place all ingredients in stand mixer or food processor until a ball is formed, wrap in plastic and chill. Can do all by hand as well.
- Prep your filling – pit and flatten your dates, cut your strawberries, slice your rhubarb stalks.
- Lightly macerate rhubarb while you start building your galette.
Roll out dough and mound filling layers. Can place rolled out dough on a tart pie for an even easier assembly. - Fold up crust over filling to keep it in.
- Brush edges and filling with buttery-vanilla mixture and sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake until the crust is a deep golden-brown and the fruit is bubbly and cooked.
Cooks Tips
- When possible, buy local and organic fruit.
- For a flakier and more delicate pastry dough, start with very cold butter.
- Dough must chill in the fridge at least 2 hours and up to 2 days, and will keep up to a month in the freezer.
- If the dough gets too sticky and hard to work with, pop tit back in the fridge/freezer and chill for a few minutes then keep going.
- Embrace galettes inner chill on don’t worry about perfection when assembling.
- The galette tastes best warm, served with vanilla ice cream (or yogurt or sweet cream).
More Spring and Summer Strawberry or Rhubarb Recipes?
Have ya tried this recipe? I’d love to hear about it and see it too! Please leave a comment below and share it on Instagram with the tag @DanielaGerson! You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to see more colorfully delicious food and all sorts of awesome adventures!
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Rhubarb Galette
Sweet, juicy strawberries pair with tangy, vibrant rhubarb to create rustic galette that quite literally easier than pie! Galettes: invented to make amateur bakers feel like pros. And provide all the benefits of pie, from the crust to the tender filling, without any of the fuss.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour plus more for surface
- 8 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter cut into pieces
- 1 large egg beaten to blend
For the Rhubarb, Strawberry & Date Filling
- 4-6 stalks of rhubarb cut vertically in half or thirds so the stalks are slimmer
- 1 cup of strawberries
- 6-8 dates pitted, cut in halve (or smaller pieces) and flattened
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract or vanilla pasta
- 2 tablespoons of butter melted
- 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1 lemon juiced (about 2 tablespoons)
Instructions
- To make the galette dough: pulse the flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt together in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment until combined. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle egg and pulse until a ball just begins to come together.
- Form dough into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 2 hours.
- To assemble the galette, roll the dough out on a well-floured surface. I like rolling it over my rolling pin and transferring it to a tart pan for very easy assemble, with the edges of the dough draping over the pan. This way I know I’m keeping enough dough to fold over after mounding the filling. If you don’t have a tart pan just transfer directly on a rimmed baking sheet and just be sure to keep a 1-2 inch border around the edge when mounding the fruit in the middle. Remember it doesn’t have to be even! Fruit juices likely to leak out so if you have parchment paper line the baking sheet with it.
- Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. You can put rolled out galette dough back in the fridge, so it doesn’t get too warm and melty while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.
- Slice your rhubarb stalks vertically in thinner strips (halves or thirds). Place them in a shallow baking dish, squeeze the lemon juice on them, sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar and toss lightly to coat. Set aside to light macerate while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Pit the dates and line the bottom of the galette dough with them, covering as much as the bottom as possible and cutting the date is sizes accordingly. It’s not perfection we’re going for just as much as the bottom covered as possible.
- Slice the strawberries and cover the date layer with them. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the strawberries.
- Melt the butter, transfer to a small and mix with the vanilla pasta.
- Arrange rhubarb stalks on top of strawberry layer. If need be, trim them shorter so they will fit inside the galette. It’s a trial-and-error kinda situation.
- Using a pastry brush, back of a spoon or anything that works for you, brush the rhubarb stalks with about half the butter-vanilla mixture (ok to eyeball it) over the rhubarb stalks and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Optional to add a vanilla beam sliced in half, to the topping of the galette, nestled in between the rhubarb stalks,
- Fold the edges of the dough up and over filling, overlapping slightly. Brush dough with remaining half of vanilla-butter mixture and sprinkle dough with tablespoon of sugar.
- Bake until galette filling is bubbling and crust is deeply browned, 40-50 minutes. Let cool slightly. Serve topped with vanilla ice cream.
Video
Notes
- When possible, buy local and organic fruit.
- For a flakier and more delicate pastry dough, start with very cold butter.
- Dough must chill in the fridge at least 2 hours and up to 2 days, and will keep up to a month in the freezer.
- If the dough gets too sticky and hard to work with, pop tit back in the fridge/freezer and chill for a few minutes then keep going.
- Embrace galettes inner chill on don’t worry about perfection when assembling.
- The galette tastes best warm, served with vanilla ice cream (or yogurt or sweet cream).
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