Preheat your oven to 200℃ and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Lay the puff pastry on the baking sheet and cut it to an oval shape. Place the cheese in the middle of the pastry – cut it smaller so that it sits snuggly together. Add the honey and butter to a small bowl and whisk together. Lay a layer of apple slices over the cheese and brush with the honey glaze. Repeat the apple and glaze layers. Fold the pastry up and over the edges of the cheese and apple – pinch it to get it to stay up and around the filling – it will collapse during baking so it need not be neat. Bake the galette in the oven for 25 minutes. Top with fresh thyme and serve.
1 store bought puff pastry 125g cream cheese, I use chive flavoured 250g smoked bacon, cubed/chopped 200g mushrooms, sliced a handful of thyme leaves 5 courgettes, cut into 3-4cm long sticks egg wash: 1 egg yolk + 30ml water whisked together
Preheat your oven to 190℃. Roll out the pastry and cut as large a circle from it as the diameter allows. Spread the cream cheese on the pastry, leaving a 3cm border on the outside. Place a pan on medium-high heat and fry the bacon pieces until cooked. Spoon into a bowl. Add the mushrooms and thyme leaves to the pan and fry until golden. Add the courgette sticks to the mushrooms and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Spoon into the bowl with the bacon and mix through. Now spoon this mixture onto the cream cheese. Fold the 3cm border of pastry over the filling and brush with the egg wash. Bake the galette for 40 minutes. Serve warm.
When it comes to a galette the success thereof is often determined by the pastry! But then again, if you do not have the time to make the pastry it can be equally successful if you replace the homemade pastry with a store bought short crust pastry. I include the recipe for a classic flaky pastry and would highly recommend that you try it when the time is right…..
Classic Flaky Pastry
65g bread flour 150g cake flour 3,5ml salt 105g butter, cubed 35g shortening, cubed (you may replace this with butter) 70ml ice cold water
Add the bread flour, cake flour and salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to mix. Add the cubed butter and shortening and pulse until the mixture forms tiny clumps, the size of lentils. Keep the engine running and slowly drizzle in half of the water. Now keep adding very small amounts of water until the pastry JUST comes together. Wrap the pastry in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
For the galette:
1 batch Classic Flaky Pastry or short crust pastry 250g cream cheese 1 batch Caramelised Onions (search the recipe on this blog) 12 fresh figs 12 bocconcini balls or other soft cheese olive oil Balsamic vinegar thyme 1 egg yolk
Preheat your oven to 190℃ and line a large baking sheet with baking paper. Roll the pastry to a 30cm circle and mark a 5cm border on the outside edges. Place the pastry on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the cream cheese evenly on the pastry, keeping the border clear. Spoon the caramelised onion on the cream cheese and spread it evenly. Cut 2 slits down the centre of each fig (or half/quarter each) and arrange onto the caramelised onion. Now arrange the bocconcini on and between the figs, drizzle the galette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and scatter over the thyme. Fold the clear border of the pastry up/over the figs. Whisk the egg yolk and 15ml water together and evenly brush a thin layer onto the pastry. Bake the galette in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with more balsamic vinegar before setting aside to cool down slightly. Serve the fig galette at room temperature.
A galette is simply a free-form French pastry with either a savoury or sweet filling. Easy and quick to make, this mushroom galette is creamy, has depth of flavour and makes a perfect light lunch.
400g puff pastry 125ml cream cheese at room temperature
45ml butter 30ml vegetable oil 500g mushrooms, sliced 3 cloves of garlic, minced 15ml thyme, lightly chopped 45ml port or sherry 250ml mozzarella cheese, grated
Egg wash of 1 egg and 15ml milk, whisked together
Preheat your oven to 200℃. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the pastry big enough to cut a 26cm-diameter circle. Place the pastry circle onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Spread the cream cheese onto the pastry with the back of a spoon, leaving a 2cm border of pastry, all around. Set aside.
Heat a heavy bottom pan on high heat and add the butter and oil. (If your pan is not large enough to accommodate all the mushroom at once, add half the butter and oil). Add the mushroom to the pan and fry at high heat so that the mushroom caramelises, about 3 minutes. Now add the garlic and thyme and cook for about 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Spoon this mixture into a bowl to cool and put the frying pan back onto medium heat. Add a splash of oil and cook the onion until soft. Add this to the mushroom mixture. Put the pan back onto the heat once more and add the port, scraping down the pan with a spatula. Scrape the caramelised bits left in the pan as well as the reduced port onto the mushroom mixture.
Sprinkle two thirds of the grated mozzarella cheese onto the cream cheese and pastry. Spoon the cooled mushroom mixture on top of the cheese and finish with the rest of the mozzarella. Fold the 2 cm pastry that extends beyond the filling over and onto the mushroom mixture. Brush the folded pastry with the egg wash and bake the galette for 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden. Serve as an aperitif or as a light lunch.
My Whisk and I 