Weekend Cooking: Peach Galette

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

_______

I love the fruit of late summer and early fall, particularly farm-fresh peaches. We've been eating them in hand, on cereal, grilled (see JoAnn's recipe), and in crisps (my favorite peach crisp recipe). This week I made a galette, based on a recipe published in the New York Times.

If you've never made a galette or just want to learn some nifty tricks, be sure to watch Melissa Clark's video on the Times site, where you'll also find her recipe, which can be used for pretty much any kind of fruit.

I made the dough exactly as the original recipe, but I tweaked the filling. (For metric measures and a non-food-processor method, see the Times site.)

Peach Galette
Adapted from the New York Times
Yield: 8 servings

For the Dough

• 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 large egg
• Heavy cream, as needed
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into big pieces
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

For the Filling

• 3 cups cubed peaches
• ⅓ cup sugar + extra for sprinkling
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Make the crust: In a food processor fitted with a steel blade pulse together flour, sugar and salt. In a measuring cup, lightly beat the egg, then add just enough cream to get to ⅓ cup. Lightly whisk the egg and cream together. Add butter to flour mixture and pulse to break up the butter--do not overprocess; you need chickpea-size chunks of butter. Drizzle the egg mixture (I used ¼ cup) over the dough and pulse until it just starts to come together but is still mostly large crumbs. Mix in lemon juice and zest. Save the extra egg mixture.

Put dough on lightly floured counter and pat it together to make one uniform piece. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for 2 hours, or up to 3 days.

Heat the oven to 400F. Roll the dough out to a 12-inch round (it can be ragged). Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper and chill while preparing the filling.

 Make the filling: Toss together peaches with sugar, salt, extract, and cornstarch. Pile fruit on the dough circle, leaving a 1½-inch border. Gently fold the pastry over the fruit, pleating to hold it in (sloppy is fine). Brush pastry generously with leftover egg and cream mixture. Sprinkle sugar on the crust.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the filling bubbles up vigorously and the crust is golden. Cool for at least 20 minutes on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.