Winter fruit galettes

All the goodness of berries, plums and apples enveloped in a rustic flaky blanket of pastry! With the exhaustion of Christmas setting in, yet that excitement of a New Year looming around the corner, an assortment of fruit galettes is as easy as it gets with dessert! All you need is some pastry, a bunch of gorgeous fresh fruit and simply spruce it up as you go.

PREPARATION TIME: 2 hours 15 minutes, including chilling time

INGREDIENTS (makes 3 small galettes)

For the pastry:

Refer to one of my older posts and halve the recipe: Raspberry & dark chocolate galettes

For the fillings:

1/2 cup almonds, ground
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Zest of one orange
2 plums, sliced
1/2 an apple, sliced
1 tablespoon apricot preserve(or any fruit)
4/5 strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Pinch of nutmeg

For the glaze:

1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
2-3 tablespoons caster sugar

METHOD

Start by making the pastry. In a large mixing bowl, sift in the dry ingredients : plain flour, corn flour, caster sugar and salt. Grate in the zest of one orange and stir through with a fork.

Add in cold cubes of unsalted butter and combine by rubbing through with your fingers in an upward motion to avoid melting the butter.

Note: Alternatively simplify the whole process with the use a fork or even better, a food processor!
Pour in the cold water, a little at a time and stir through until the dough just about starts coming together in the bowl.

Tip the crumble onto your worktop and gently bring together with your hands to form a ball. Divide into two halves and wrap separately in clingfilm. Place the dough to chill in the fridge for a minimum of one hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C(400°F).

In a small bowl mix the ground almonds, orange zest and caster sugar. Set aside 1/3rd of the mixture and add the cinnamon powder and nutmeg to it.

For the berry galette:

Combine the raspberries, caster sugar, orange juice and stir through. Set the bowl in the fridge until you roll out the pastry. Place the raspberry mixture on the bottom, sprinkle a third of the ground almond mixture and top with strawberry slices.

For the plum galette:

Place a third of the ground almond mixture in the middle of the pastry and top with a layer of thinly sliced plums leaving an inch around the edges. You could additionally brush some of the leftover raspberry liquid over the top and sprinkle with more sugar.

For the apple galette:

Spread the fruit preserve on the pastry. Sprinkle over the spiced ground almond mixture in the middle and top with a layer of thinly sliced apples leaving an inch around the edges. You could drizzle a spoon of honey over the top as well.

Fold in the pastry, such the it overlaps a bit of the filling as you gently pleat it. You don’t have to be precise with this step, so long as it creates a little pocket to hold the filling in.

Glaze the pastry shell with a mixture of egg and milk with the help of a pastry brush and sprinkle generously with sugar. That ensures you have a lovely textured crust with every bite!

Place in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pastry turns a lovely golden brown and is cooked through.

Serve these up warm with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice-cream and you won’t regret it!

PRESSURE POINTS

When making the pastry, do not over work the dough, simply bring the crumble together with your hands until it just comes together.

When placing the filling inside the pastry, be sure to leave out any liquid that’s in the bowl. This could make the base of the pastry soggy when in the oven.

If you give this recipe a go, I’d love to see how it turned out. Leave a comment below and share your pictures on Instagram using the tag #thecookbooklife!

Happy holidays everyone!

Nikita xx