A Guide to Savory Spring Galettes
a cornmeal crust filled with herbed goat cheese, sweet asparagus, and leeks
Last week, I thought that maybe spring was on its way. We had four straight days of above freezing temperatures, grass began to peek up through the melting snow, and I started finding asparagus in the grocery store. Then Saturday night reminded me that winter is still clinging on tightly. We had an afternoon and evening of freezing rain and thunder snow (?—I had never heard of this until I moved to Minnesota) and woke up Sunday morning to 5 inches of fresh snow.
But I don’t care. I’ve decided that no matter the weather, I’m going to continue to pretend that I can see spring on the horizon. One of my favorite ways to do that is to stock my fridge with every single piece of sweet green produce I can find. Asparagus, leeks, spring peas, radishes, artichokes, strawberries, mangos…you name it, I'm eating it. It’s spring somewhere, right?
One of the very best, low-maintenance ways to enjoy said produce is wrapped in flaky pie crust a la spring veggie galette.
a simple spring veggie galette
The beauty of this recipe is that it is really more of a template, endlessly adaptable to the veggies sprouting in your neck of the woods. There are three basic components to a good savory galette: crust, cheese, veg.
the crust
Before embarking on this pie crust recipe, I encourage you to hop on over to last week’s Pie Crust Deep Dive, where we got into the nitty gritty science of crust-making and I gave lots of tips and tricks for perfect pie crust at home.
One of my very favorite ways to play with flavors and textures in pie dough is through the incorporation of different flours. For this recipe, I used an all purpose flour base with a little bit of cornmeal for added texture and crunch. You could easily incorporate any flour that you have on hand. Whole wheat, semolina, and spelt are a few of my favorites when working with savory pies.
the cheese
Every good galette has cheese. For this one, I combined softened goat cheese with lots of lemon zest and fresh dill and smeared it all over crust. This added moisture and creaminess, bright lemony flavor, and it worked kind of like a mortar, to help of the veggies stay in their place during folding and baking.
If you’re not into goat cheese, you could easily substitute another creamy cheese, like cream cheese or boursin. Or you could skip the soft cheese layer and sprinkle grated mozzarella or cheddar over the surface of the veggies. Really, anything goes in savory galette-ing.
the veg
The theme of this recipe is “you can do whatever you like”, so pick your favorite veggies. I used thinly sliced leeks, spring asparagus, and halved heirloom cherry tomatoes because that’s what looked best at my grocery store.
Artichokes + peas. Thinly sliced fennel + chives. Caramelized leeks + mushrooms. Anything goes. Two things to note: 1) Don’t overload your galette. Piling too many veggies on will prevent thorough cooking of the dough. 2) Watch the moisture. Some veggies carry way more moisture than others, like freshly sliced tomatoes. Too much moisture will create a soggy crust. To circumvent that, you can cook some of those high-moisture veggies, like mushrooms, to draw out a lot of the moisture and then let them cool before putting them on your galette.
a spring veggie galette
with leeks, asparagus, and cherry tomatoes
Makes one 8x12” galette, serves about 4
Ingredients:
For the crust
1 cup (125 g) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (45 g) cornmeal
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
3-4 tbsp ice water
For the galette
5 oz goat cheese, softened
zest of one lemon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, divided
1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
6 oz asparagus, trimmed
1/2 of a leek, thinly sliced
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
a beaten egg
Procedure:
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, and salt.
Add the cubes of butter and toss to coat with the flour. Use your fingers to work the butter into the flour, until butter is pea-sized. Add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, until pie dough holds together when squeezed in your fist.
Transfer the dough to a lightly-floured work surface and knead briefly, until all of the flour has been worked in and no dry spots remain.
Shape the dough into a rectangular disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for at least one hour.
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap and sandwich between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll the dough into a rectangle, about 8 1/2” x 12” in size and about 1/4 of an inch thick and trim the edges to neaten and straighten.
Remove the top layer of parchment paper and then transfer the rolled out dough and bottom piece of parchment paper to the sheet pan. Set aside.
In a small bowl, stir together goat cheese, lemon zest, salt, 1/4 tsp of black pepper, and dill. Transfer the mixture to the center of the pie dough and spread into an even layer over the surface, leaving about an 1” of pie dough on each side.
Arrange thinly sliced leeks over the goat cheese mixture, followed by the asparagus in an even layer. Sprinkle halved tomatoes over the top.
Fold the edges of the pie dough up and over the filling to form a crust, pressing the corners to seal. Brush the surface of the dough with the beaten egg and then sprinkle with the remaining black pepper.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is deeply golden brown. Let cool slightly before slicing and serving.
new on the blog
In case you missed it, a brand new recipe for Grapefruit Meringue Tarts went up on the blog last week. You can read it here!