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Plum and almond galette

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plum and almond galette
bowl of plums

In the summer, I eat fruit like it’s going out of style. Berries, plums, peaches, cherries and watermelon—it’s like a big happy fruit-salad party everyday. At work, the fruit arrives each morning between 9 and 9:30 and there’s this rule that each person should take no more than two pieces. Lately I’ve been picking out two plums for my daily share, but two small plums, sadly, is never enough. Happily, my friend Lauren has not one, not two, but three (!) plum trees in her backyard. She dropped off an overflowing box of these beautiful fruits this weekend, and after eating an entire bowl immediately after she left, I knew I wanted to make a plum galette with them. Galettes are so rustic and pretty and even the name sounds super fancy, doesn’t it?

colorful plum slices
egg wash for galette
The hardest part was making the dough (which yields a ridiculously buttery flaky crust), but that was pretty simple. The trick is to use really cold butter and to not overwork it so all your ingredients stay cold. I used this recipe, and adapted it slightly as I don’t have a food processor and used really ripe plums. It still turned out delicious. The amazing crust would be good for all kinds of things. I’m going to use it to make a savory breakfast galette next 🙂
Rustic Almond-Plum Galette
(Adapted from Kiss My Spatula)
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups + 3 tbsp all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 cup very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup + 3 tbsp + 1/2 tsp sugar
1-2 tbsp turbinado sugar for dusting 
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2-4 tbsp ice water
1/4 cup whole, skin-on almonds, toasted
5 to 6 firm plums, halved, pitted, and sliced 1/4 inch thick (if using small ripe plums, as I did, simply slicing the “cheeks” off (2 slices per side) yields much neater results)
zest of half a lemon
1 egg, lightly beaten and strained through a fine mesh sieve
Method
In a food processor, combine 1 1/4 cups flour, butter, 1/2 tsp sugar, and salt. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water, 1 tbsp at a time. Pulse until dough is crumbly, but holds together when squeezed. Do not overmix. (Note: If you don’t have a food processor, combining the dough ingredients in a large bowl and using a pastry cutter also works nicely). Remove dough from food processor and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Meanwhile, wipe bowl of food processor clean and add almonds, 3 tbsp sugar, and 2 tbsp of flour. Pulse until ground to a coarse meal. (To process the almonds, I used our small coffee grinder and then mixed it with the sugar and flour in a small bowl).
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, toss the plums with 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp flour and zest of half a lemon. Taste and add more sugar for desired sweetness and set aside. On a lightly floured surface sprinkled with turbinado sugar, roll out dough to a 13-14 inch round, about an 1/8-1/4 of inch thick. (Try as I might, I couldn’t roll my dough out past ten inches or so. But it’s supposed to be rustic, so I just went with it). Transfer to a parchment-lined cookie sheet (preferably without sides) and spread almond mixture over dough, leaving a two-inch border. Spread and arrange plums on top of almond mixture. Fold and pleat edge of dough over fruit. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Brush crust with egg wash and sprinkle galette with 1-2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar. Bake until crust is golden and underside is cooked through, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing.

Last modified: January 10, 2019