Almond Peach Galette

Peaches are one of my favorite summer fruits to eat and bake with, so I was pleasantly surprised to catch the end of peach picking season when we went apple picking at Linvilla Orchards just outside of Philadelphia.

I can’t tell you what kind of peach we picked, but I can tell you they were the most perfect freestone peaches I have ever eaten. Cutting them was a dream since the pits fell away, and I knew I had to bake with these peaches.

I’ve been wanting to make a galette for a while – while making your own pastry dough is tedious, I think it’s always worth the effort (vs graham cracker crumb crusts or box cakes mixes, where I don’t taste as big of a difference in quality so I’ll go with premade ones).

Sometimes pastry making doesn’t cooperate.

I adapted this recipe from epicurious, and while I read through the crust ingredients I noticed it had more wet ingredients than my usual pastry recipes. When I made it the dough was so incredibly wet I had a hard time shaping it.

I battled with the dough for a good hour (to my husband’s amusement), but he really like this dough more than my usual crust and requested it for the future. He really liked the almond flavor and the sugar studded crust.

Arranging peach slices in a rose is just as tedious; I was so afraid the galette would fall apart with the wet dough, but it held together pretty nicely.

People often ask if I ever make recipes over again, and I tell them I rarely do. I like to do it all fancy once, just to prove I can do it. Plus there’s so many recipes in the world that are asking to be made.

I’m not sure if I’d make this recipe again through for all that work, but I wouldn’t mind doing it with a few shortcuts.

Almond Peach Galette

Ingredients
PASTRY
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for working with the dough
1/2 cup almond flour (note that this dough was very wet and I would make it 1 cup total almond flour next time)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Scant 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1 large egg
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon beaten egg
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

FILLING
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 peaches with skin, cut into 1/4 inch-thick wedges

Directions
PASTRY: Combine the flours, sugar, and salt and cut butter in a food processor and pulse until blended. In a small bowl or cup, whisk together the 1 egg and the milk until blended, pour into the food processor or bowl all at once, and pulse or gently mix by hand until the dough forms a rough clump. Do not overwork the dough to avoid toughness. (Dough was wet very for me)

Flour a work surface. Transfer the dough to the floured surface, form it into a ball, and then flatten into a disk 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1- 2 hours to chill.

When the dough is well chilled, preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator to assemble.

FILLING: In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, the flour, and the cinnamon, mixing well. Place the peaches in a bowl, sprinkle the sugar mixture over the top, and toss gently.

Lay a large sheet of parchment paper on a work surface and dust the parchment with flour. Place the dough on the floured parchment and roll it out into a round about 1/8 inch thick, adding flour as needed. Starting 1 to 1 1/2 inches from the edge of the round, arrange the peach wedges in the center. Fold the outer edges of the pastry over the peaches, creating overlapping folds as you work around the perimeter. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and then press lightly with the turbinado sugar into the dough.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Let the galette cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack. Cut into wedges to serve.