Hello there! I am back! The meetings that I mentioned
here went well and, although this is still a busy time for us at work, it’s a good kind of busy. They type that you know is pulling you and your team to bigger and better things, even as you wipe the sweat off your brow and wallpaper your aching back with
Salonpas.
But enough work talk! I feel like
celebrating and I’m doing it with pie! Well, with a
galette if you want to be technical. A
Plum and Nectarine Galette if you want to be specific. I found some nice plums and nectarines in the Sunday market across the street from me (
yes, I live two steps away from a cute little market - another reason to celebrate!) so I bought a bunch with this in mind. I had been reading about
Dorie Greenspan’s Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough from the enthusiastic
Tuesdays With Dorie bunch and had been meaning to try it. When I saw Cenk’s
gorgeous galette on (
the equally gorgeous)
Cafe Fernando I knew that as soon as I had a bit of free time I would be rolling out this dough.
I must say, the legions of Dorie fans out there are not mistaken. This pie dough really
is good for almost anything! It’s tasty and flaky and a snap to put together. And getting pie dough flaky in my hot and humid kitchen is a feat in itself –
Dorie I owe you! I used Cenk’s version though which only has butter and no shortening. I don’t have anything against shortening, and I know it is supposed to make the dough flakier, but I was too lazy to buy some ;)
I adapted the recipe slightly to make allowances for all the humidity and heat over here – lessening the water and adding more dough-chilling time. This recipe makes enough for a 9-inch double crust pie. If you make galettes you can make two 9-inch ones (
one now one later)...and you don’t have to fiddle with a pie pan ;)
Plum and Nectarine Galette
(pie dough recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours as adapted by Cenk of Cafe Fernando, filling adapted from Cenk’s recipe)For the pie dough:3 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 3 sticks of butter, cut into small chunks and chilled in the freezer for about 20 minutes 1/3 cup ice water
For the filling: 300-400 grams fresh plums, pitted and sliced into eighths (I used 3 plums) 300-400 grams fresh nectarines, pitted and sliced into eighths (I used 2 1/2 nectarines) 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling Juice of half a lemon
1 egg, slightly beaten (for assembly)
- Pulse flour, sugar and salt in a food processor using a metal blade.
- Remove butter from freezer, add it in the processor, and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal. Do not over mix! The pieces don’t have to be uniform. Dorie says some can be the size of fat peas and some the size of barley.
- Add ice water little by little, pulsing once in between each addition, until the dough forms clumps and curds (I lessened the water from 1/2 cup to 1/3 due to the moisture already present in my air). Again, do not over mix! Chunks of butter in the dough are fine (yum!) :)
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and very lightly and sparingly, knead just to incorporate dry ingredients.
- Divide the dough into two even balls. Flatten balls into disks and wrap individually in plastic.
- Refrigerate dough for at least an hour (I refrigerated one disk and kept the other in the freezer for future use).
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough between two sheets of baking parchment (you can roll dough directly on a floured work surface or between two sheets of plastic wrap but parchment works best for me) into a rough 11-inch circle. When rolling, turn dough over frequently and lift the parchment so it doesn’t form creases. Trim the edges to form a clean circle.
- Place your flattened dough (covered in the parchment) back in the fridge for about 20 minutes to chill again.
- Remove dough from fridge, peel of top layer of parchment, and transfer the dough, on the bottom layer of parchment, to a sheet pan or pizza pan (I used one of those pizza pans with holes on the bottom).
- Mix 1/2 tablespoon of the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl and spread on the bottom of the dough.
- Toss plums and nectarines with the rest of the cornstarch, sugar, and lemon juice.
- Arrange the fruit on the bottom of the dough, leaving 2 inches of dough left outside.
- Fold up and pleat the dough (as best you can) over the top of the fruit, leaving the center uncovered.
- Lightly brush the top of the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle both the dough and the fruit with sugar (I used Demerara sugar with large crystals).
- Place the galette in 400F oven and cook for 40-45 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
- Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack immediately.
I love how this turned out! All rustic and earth goddess goodness...uneven buttery crust, sticky-shiny filling, sweet juices bubbling over onto the parchment, hypnotic pie-baking smell filling my flat...and C, who is not a sweets type of guy, actually had it for dessert that night (and breakfast today), claiming that “I like this kind of thing!” Yet another reason to celebrate!
More reasons to celebrate: A wonderfully generous friend brought me back Fage Greek yogurt from her trip to Hong Kong, so I’ve been having very satisfied breakfasts :) I discovered the most adorable earth-friendly soap stall at my neighbourhood’s Sunday market! She makes body soaps and laundry soap...the laundry soap smells so good (it’s made with herbs) that I want to dunk my head in the basin every time I wash! And I can! Because it’s safe for my skin! Joy! The best part? Unbeknownst to me at the time, she is the same girl who supplied me with all those tomatoes a while back! 80 Breakfasts is mentioned as “click-worthy” in Rogue Magazine’s current (August 2008) issue – The Appetite Issue (piece by Wysgal)! Oh yay!!! My shameless thrill is as uncool and this magazine is cool. Thank goodness this blog managed to slip into its pages before any of them discovered how dorky I am ;)
I don't have a green thumb though I am trying to remedy this. I did buy a couple of mini conifers, a little plant that has flowers that look like little goldfish and a venus fly trap plant. My little one is enthralled with the venus fly trap. At first he was scared because he thought that the plant would eat his finger. After that, it was so "cool" and he watched it "eat" a bug.
The buildings were quaint and picturesque. It looks and feels much like Clinton, NJ where I live. The charm and beauty of these little American towns is so special.
We spent a few moments in Chagrin Falls. What a quaint little place. Though I'm generally a modern kind of girl, I also love and appreciate vintage things. Let me tell you about this fabulous shop in Chagrin Falls. It is called Stash Style and it is so inspiring. There's so much to see in this beautiful place and they sell AMAZING cupcakes. Now I know what all of the fuss is over red velvet cupcakes. Yum! Yum! The displays in the shop are delicious too. I managed to buy a few small items and, oh yeah, a little rocking chair! Reno, surprisingly, didn't give me that look that he normally gives me when I am trying to do something crazy like stuff 6 big chairs from a rummage sale into our little SUV. Thank you for that sweetie.
Here are some more endcaps showing other fabrics and patterns. It was like being in a candy store. This is the fabric section. Their notions and book section [sorry I didn't get a pic] is phenomenal. I need an organizational system like that for my kiddos' stuff.
Hubby took the kiddos got to see the Toledo Zoo and surrounding area. Dh is great about supporting me that way even though he may go a little bonkers by the end of the day. The kids really enjoyed the visit too and they're such great troopers because dh and I drag them everywhere. More on our travels later. We made a stop in a fabulous place on our way back but it will have to be in another post for another day.
