Rustic blueberry-peach galette

There’s a lot to love about peaches. They have their unique, velvet-y skin, soft, juicy flesh, and the fragrant aroma that gets even sweeter when the flesh is warmed by the sun to perfect ripeness. Remember how it feels when you bite into a warm peach, and the juice dribbles down your chin as soon as your teeth pierce the skin? That’s a universal summer memory, I think.

Nutritionally, there’s even more to love; peaches offer a good dose of healthy fiber, and contain vitamins A and C as well as some B vitamins. These vitamins are even more plentiful in tree-ripened fruit as opposed to fruit that is picked too early and shipped in to your town.

However, we eat them because they’re delicious, mostly, don’t we?

I visited the farmer’s market in Tyler on Saturday; I just made it at the last minute, after having been at the Jacksonville Tomato Fest all morning with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. We had a great time, and enjoyed all the fun (and tasty) things we got to see and do there. (more on that later)

I got lucky; many of the farmers had pulled their trucks out of the tent to head home, but there were several vendors still there, including Barron’s Blueberries. I bought a couple of pints of berries, and they threw in several gorgeous peaches for me to experiment with in a recipe to share here and on KLTV.com and on-air on KLTV-7 in Tyler.

This recipe didn’t make it to air just yet, but I wanted to let you in on the simple beauty of this dessert. It’s one of those pastries that look like it took hours of hard preparation, but truly, you can have it put together in less than ten minutes.

And look how lovely it is:

blueberry peach galette 002 — Rustic blueberry-peach galette

In case you don’t already know, a galette is simply a free-form tart. Traditional tarts are usually formed in shallow tart pans with fluted sides. They’re pretty, but a little fussy. A galette is composed of the same ingredients, but are just formed on a cookie sheet by folding the edges over the tart itself by hand.

Here’s David Lebowitz’ essay with a demonstration of how to make a galette.

Mama Steph’s rustic blueberry-peach galette

For the crust:

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 oz (1/2 cup, 1 stick, 8 Tbsp) butter, cut into small (1/2-inch) cubes, chilled in freezer at least 15 minutes, preferably an hour

4 to 6 Tbsp ice water

(tip: if you’re pressed for time, use a pastry crust from the refrigerator section; that’s what I used and what you see in the picture! It’s delicious; however, if you have time, it’s fun to try to make your own crust.)

For the filling:

2-3 peaches, peeled and sliced into thin wedges

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

3 TBS sugar

1 TBS plain flour

1 tsp vanilla extract or 1/2 tsp almond extract

2 tsp butter

Place fruit in a medium bowl, add sugar, flour and extract, and mix gently to coat all the fruit.

Roll chilled pastry dough out to about a 12″ circle on a floured surface. Gently place on rimmed baking sheet. (adding a sheet of parchment to the baking sheet will help to easily remove the galette after baking; optional.)

Arrange fruit in a circle in the center of the pastry crust; leave about 4 inches uncovered along the outside edge, all the way around, of the pastry for folding over the fruit.

Fold the sides of the pastry over the fruit in an accordion fashion.

Brush the pastry crust folds with beaten egg, and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired.

Bake at 425 degrees F. for 15-20 minutes, until nicely browned.

Remove from oven and place on cooking rack for 15 minutes before removing from baking sheet.