PINEAPPLE GALETTE
Pineapple galette, and galettes in general are a relatively new dish for us. But galettes are incredibly popular in Europe (France, mainly). Galette is for most parts a pretty loose term, and there is a lot to explore while making this pastry. The only set defining term for this dish is, it is crusty, flat, freeform (or round) cake. But, don’t be fooled by the word cake, because galettes don’t essentially have to be sweets all the time. Galettes can be made savoury too, with the filling of your choice.
Coming to pineapple, I chose to make galette with it because I love pineapples. They are sweet, and tart and very under appreciated. But the most amazing thing about galettes are their versatility. Like, I already mentioned you can make savoury galettes. But even in the fruity ones, there is a lot to play around with. Literally any fruit that you have with you, you can use as a galette filling. I cooked my pineapples (I used fresh ones), in a sugar-spice mix. This spice mix (cinnamon and nutmeg) made the fruit filling multi-layered. So I highly recommend you do this small cooking part. You can swap out the pineapples for apples, mangoes, and maybe even bananas.
Serve the galette with a little cream drizzled on top, or with a scoop of ice cream.
Lastly, but most importantly, the dough. This galette dough is one of the most minimalistic (in terms of ingredients) doughs in the baking world. There are literally just 5 ingredients. All Purpose Flour (or maida), sugar, salt, cold butter and cold water. The butter and water have to be cold in order for us to get a flakey nice crust. If you have a food processor, you can mix your dough in that. But, I lost an important part of my food processor, so I kneaded it with my hands, and it turned out pretty amazing.
Pineapple Galette
Materials
For the galette dough
- 1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour Maida
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 3/4 Tsp Salt
- 100 Gms Cold Butter 1 stick butter
- 3-4 Tbsp Ice Cold Water
- Zest from one lemon Optional
For the pineapple filling
- 2 Cups Diced Fresh Pineapples
- 5 Tbsp Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Honey
- 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 1 Tbsp Corn Starch
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
For milk wash
- 2 Tbsp Milk
- 3-4 Tbsp Sugar
Instructions
Making the dough
- In a bowl, take the flour and lemon zest (if using).
- Add sugar and salt, and mix well.
- Take a stick of cold butter.
- Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour mix. You can also grate the butter but cubing it is easier and it gets the job done just as well as grating it would do.
- Press each cube of butter in with the flour breaking it into smaller pieces and mixing it with the flour until the mixture resembles a crumbled biscuit mix.
- Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing it well until a cohesive soft ball of dough is formed. No more than 3-4 tablespoons of water will be needed for this. Make sure to use ice cold water. Wrap the dough in cling wrap, and let it chill in the fridge for an hour.
Making the pineapple filling
- Take the cut pineapples in a pan.
- Add all the ingredients given for making the filling, and let it come to a boil (the pineapples and sugar will hydrate to form a liquid; boiling is when the liquid starts to bubble slightly) and then simmer for 10 minutes on low heat.
- Remove from heat, and let it cool for an hour.
Preparing the Galette
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC, and prepare the baking dishes by lining them with parchment sheet.
- Transfer the chilled dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide it into two equal portions.
- Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rough circle. Using your fingers press the ends thinner than the center. If the dough is too tight and starts breaking, let it sit for 5 minutes at room temperature.
- Transfer the rolled out dough onto the prepared baking dish.
- Place the pineapple filling in the centre leaving a sort of border on the edges. We will be folding in these borders.
- Bring the edges inward and place it on top of the pineapple. Don't worry if the the dough starts to break, just press it together.
- Make pleats as shown in the picture by folding in the edges.
- Do the same until all the remaining border dough is brought in with pleated folds.
- Repeat the same for the second half of the dough too. Brush with milk (if you use eggs, you can also brush it with a beaten egg), and sprinkle sugar on the dough part of the unbaked galette. Bake at 180ºC for 45-50 minutes until a golden crust is formed.
