plum galette

Oh hello Fall!  Yes...in my mind Fall has arrived. Ha!  What can I say?  When you work on an apple and pumpkin farm, it tends to "arrive" a bit early.  We've been picking apples since July, and have already harvested a ton of pumpkins to get ready to sell, and I love it.  

Fall might just be my favourite season....from crisp, foggy mornings, hot drinks, all of the seasonal fruit that's ready to harvest, and colourful leaves, I love it all.  

Now let's talk about plums!  Possibly the prettiest fruit we grow, seriously, the purple-y blue is stunning!  I knew that I wanted to make a galette with them, and photograph it in the orchard among the plum trees!  Evenings in the orchard are pretty magical, complete with gorgeous light and the most peaceful silence.  My only company was my kitty, Pippa, who enjoys climbing the plum trees, and right before I packed everything up decided maybe she wanted a taste of a galette too!  She's much too cute to stay mad at for long though. Ha!

Now, this is seriously the most ridiculous "recipe" ever.  Mostly it's just inspiration for you!  I didn't add anything except a small sprinkling of sugar to my plums!  So plain and simple, but their flavours just shone while wrapped up in flaky pastry.  And seriously, check out the gorgeous purple juice that formed while the plums cooked.  So good!


Plum Galette

Pastry recipe from: Jean Pare - Company's Coming: Desserts

Ingredients:

5 cups Flour

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

3 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 lb Lard (or vegetable shortening)

1 Egg

2 tbsp Vinegar

Cold water

 

Directions:

1)  Mix together flour, salt, baking powder and brown sugar in a large bowl.

2)  Cut up lard and add to dry ingredients. 

3)  Using a pastry cutter (or a plain old fork works as well), cut in lard until your mixture is crumbly.

4)  Break your egg into a liquid measuring cup and beat well.

5)  Add vinegar to the measuring cup.

6)  Add very cold water to the measuring cup, until the mixture measures to 1 cup.

7)  Pour liquid mixture over flour mixture slowly, and stir.

8)  Use your hands to work the mixture together until it no longer crumbles apart.  This is where experience will come in, as you don't want to overmix the dough!  Once you make it a couple of times, you'll get the feel of it.

9)  Divide into 4 equal parts.  Each part will make two 9-inch galettes (or one pie), so you can choose to use it all at once, store some of the dough in the fridge* for up to 2 weeks, or pop some of into the freezer for later!

*If you do refrigerate your dough overnight (or for a few days), be sure to take it out at least an hour before you roll out it.  Otherwise it will be too stiff!


Directions:

Cut plums into quarters, removing the pit.  

Roll out pie dough into a circle with a 9-inch diameter.  Arrange plums within the dough, leaving a good inch and a half to two inches around the outside to fold over.  Sprinkle plums with a bit of sugar.

Gently fold dough over, using a bit of water on where it folds onto itself to help the dough hold the shape better.

Beat your egg and brush onto the dough to help bring out a beautiful golden colour on the crust while baking.  Sprinkle with a bit of coarse sugar for added decoration if you'd like.

Bake at 400 F for 35-40 minutes or until plums are tender and bubbling.

Filling:

Italian plums

sugar

 

egg - beaten - to be used for as an egg wash


I have a long list of seasonal recipes that I'm hoping to get through this Fall, although the short days and my long work hours always make it a bit tricky!  I'll do my best!  Seriously...why can't Fall last just a little longer?

-Kelsey