Fig Galette

I was at my parents place last night and my dad took me on a tour of the garden. I had a bucket with me to pick all the fruit that had ripened.

 

They also have a huge fig tree so I picked a few. Figs. When’s the last time you’ve had a fresh fig?

Yum. They are the juiciest, richest, most delicious fruit. I usually see them artfully arranged on a cheese platter or sliced and served with a nice, tart yoghurt. I have a recipe in one of my Williams Sonoma cookbooks for a Fig Galette so I picked a bunch of figs and started baking.

Cut my figs up in quarters

Added the brown sugar and lemon zest

Put mixture onto my rolled out pastry dough

Brushed the dough with heavy cream and added chopped almonds

Bake for 40 minutes @ 400 degrees F

and

Voila Fig Galette!

Brought Fig Galette to parents place and we had a lovely treat with coffee mmmm . . . .

Here’s the recipe from my Williams-Sonoma Dessert cookbook:

FIRST. Before I begin. I want to give you a brief disclaimer. I don’t give you a recipe for pastry. Use whatever has worked for you in the past or just go buy some premade. I hate pastry. It’s a moody, hormonal bitch that never turns out when I really want it to and on days when I’m not really paying attention it turns out picture perfect. I have tried versions made in my food processer, by hand, with butter, without butter, half butter and half vegetable shortening. Egg no egg the options are endless and I think I’ve tried just about all of them. It’s a hassle. It’s annoying. So go buy some and save yourself the headache. For the record, I did make this pastry from scratch. It was a sticky, falling apart mess. My four year old has learned some new curse words thanks to this mornings’ pastry debacle.

Back to the Galette:

1 1/4 lb (625 Grams) Ripe fresh figs, stemmed and quartered lengthwise

1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz 21 grams) firmly packed sugar

1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2 tblsp heavy cream

1/4 cup sliced (flaked ) almonds

Roll out pastry about 13 inches round. Trim off ragged edges. ( I didn’t cut my ragged edges off my pastry dough because it would’ve been too small so I got ragged edges with my @#$%%% pastry)

Use dough scraper or icing spatula to loosen pastry if it sticks.

Toss together the figs, brown sugar, zest, and vanilla until all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Put dough onto baking sheet and arrange the figs in a pile in the center of the dough, leaving a 2 inch border uncovered. Fold the dough up and over the filling, pleating loosely all around the circle and leaving the galette open in the center. Brush the pleated dough with the cream. Sprinkle almonds on top of the dough and press them lightly to help them stick.

Bake until the crust is golden and the figs are tender when pierced with a tip of a knife, about 40 minutes. Let cool in a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My notes: The sugar escapes the galette and makes a burnt sticky mess that is hard to clean so cover the baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil then put the galette on it and bake.

After galette comes out of the oven I used two large flippers to ease the galette off the baking sheet and onto my cooling rack. I put a plate underneath it to catch to juice that leaked out.

After it cools:

Make a mass of whip cream and serve.