Baking with Julia: Fig Galette

I had an "Ah hah!" moment while making this galette. Last year about this time, I attempted to make a fresh fig galette after being inspired by a recipe for the same over at Simply Recipes. Let's just say, it didn't come out quite like I'd hoped. So when I saw that we had a fresh fruit galette to make this week, I thought here's my chance to try and redeem myself! And here is what I came up with:

(not too shabby, if I do say so m'self!)

For the filling I used fresh calimyrna figs and honey, simple as that. So long as you get ripe figs (or even a little over-ripe, in this case, since they'll be baked), they really need no extra flavors to be fantastic.

The recipe for the dough (the whole recipe can be found here and here) called for a few tablespoons of either yogurt or buttermilk or some sort of tangy dairy goodness... in keeping with the theme of my figs and honey, I chose to use a few tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt. The recipe also calls for cornmeal in the crust, and I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but happily I was really pleased... it gave the crust a nice tooth that complimented the slight crunch of the figs amazingly well.

The one thing that didn't go so well was pulling the crust together. Our weather turned horrifically hot and humid the night that I chose to make this, and knowing how quickly figs can over-ripen, I didn't dare leave it for another night. So, I put the butter and the yogurt-water mixture directly in the freezer and left them there while I prepped everything else. Then, at the last possible second, I whipped them out and worked the dough as quickly as humanly possible (this time I did it by hand rather than food processor so as not to overwork the dough), and despite my near-super-human speed, the butter was becoming decidedly melty as I frantically wrapped everything up for its rest in the fridge. I don't have a marble slab to work pastry on, but after that night, I can certainly see the appeal of one! Luckily, the 2 hour chill did the trick and while it was still fairly soft, I was able to roll it out and get it ready for the oven with no further drama.

I chose to make a small galette that served B and I just fine (we probably could have used a smaller portion each, but oh well! ;) and served it with some vanilla ice cream and a fresh fig to garnish. I have to say, I'm *really* pleased with how this one turned out! I was indeed able to redeem myself from last year's less-than-stellar performance, and got to enjoy some fantastically fresh (and oh so fleeting) figs from the market at the same time. I still have another half of the dough in the fridge and some more figs, so this will likely be a repeat performance on another, cooler evening this week :)

Oh! And one little tip.... when baking things like this that may leak/ooze, I always give the edges of my parchment paper (does anyone else love that stuff? best baking tool in the world) a quick fold, like this:

It's a little hard to see, but basically just fold it over along the egde by an inch or so. No need to keep the corners flat or anything, that little fold will give it enough of a lip that it will contain any juices that want to run off onto your baking sheet :) Saves a lot of clean up!!!