Confession: I’ve attempted pie crusts maybe twice before this galette.
Confession: Up until this galette, making pie crust would freak the hell out of me.
Pies in general freak the hell out of me. So much perfection and pretty crusts. There’s nice agile hands that can gently put a pie together and crimp edges and then there’s people like me that have Buster’s giant hand that just damages everything in one sweep. I’M A MONSTER.
That’s why galettes are right up my alley. There’s obviously still the pie crust anxiety that I’ve totally gotten over, but there’s no pressure of crimped edges and pie dishes. Just the most “rustic” folds my Buster hands can handle.
The pie crust fear has also been taken care of, thanks to Joy. There’s no pulsing in the food processor or needing a pastry cutter, just a rolling pin and some flattening and some serious flaky action. It’s super easy and insanely good and adaptable with any berry. Just be sure that you have a rolling pin before you start so you don’t have to sub, say, a portable propane tank. I’m not saying that I did that but I definitely did that.
man vs wild vs pie crust.
I had a serious urge to make a galette after I went to make papaya bars with my friend Anna and I cut open the papaya and it smelled like a baby diaper and I wanted it to be over but apparently they’re supposed to smell and now I know but I needed a backup plan the end.
We almost made hand pies, but settled on tiny galettes and I remembered I wanted to try my hand at those and then try my hand at cream cheese danish filling. I’ve got a thing for cream cheese danishes ya know? They turned out delicious and I knew I had to make a large one when I got home so I could shoot it for the blog and play show and tell.
So today you’re all getting a birth announcement for a sexy frankenstein cream cheese danish galette baby. voom voom shebang.
Cream Cheese & Blueberry Danish
Crust straight from Joy the Baker
Cream Cheese Filling adapted from Barefoot Contessa
Galette sizing and baking time from Dula Notes
Crust
(makes enough for 2 galettes. Mine as well make two and freeze the second one for another time)
2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter
2 1/2 (12 ounces) cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (5 to 6 ounces) very cold buttermilk
Cream Cheese Filling
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 T sugar
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 T lemon zest (1 lemon)
Other Ingredients
1/2 Pint, 6oz container, 1 cup, blueberries, or blackberries would be amazing.
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
First thing first, make the pie crust.
If any of these directions sound confusing, Joy has her shit together with great step by step picture directions here.
Cut your butter up into Tablespoon slices, then cut the stick of butter down the middle, in half. Throw in the freezer while you mix the dry ingredients, everything except the butter and buttermilk, in a large bowl.
Once it’s all combined dump out the flour on the counter and put the frozen butter on top of that. Using a legit rolling pin, roll out the butter into sheets so it’s all flattened and thinned. Quickly take that and using your hands toss in the very cold buttermilk until a shaggy dough forms.
Now I know you’re thinking ‘Billy what the hell is going on’? This does not look like a pie dough, surely you’ve led me astray. Just shut up and keep going.
Split the dough in half and wrap each half in parchment to help with rolling out later, and place in the fridge for an hour so the moisture can redistribute. Seriously, this dough is magic. Just look at Joy’s pictures.
Just before the hour is up, make the cream cheese filling by beating the cream cheese and sugar until smooth, then stirring in the rest of the ingredients. Done.
Time to roll out the dough. The goal is to get a 14″ circle. Remember that parchment paper we wrapped it up in? Yeah it’s probably 15″. Use that as a guide, and keep it on the parchment for baking. Look how eco friendly we’re being. It doesn’t have to be a perfect circle either. Remember it’s rustic Buster hand friendly.
Once it’s rolled out into a 14″ sort of circle, place parchment and dough circle on a large baking sheet. Scrape out all the cream cheese filling into the center and spread it around, leaving about 1 1/2″ of naked dough all around the edge. Put the berries on top of that, then fold over 1 part of the edge and continue folding all around the rest of the galette until you come back to where you started. Now we need to brush the crust around the edge with the egg wash and place it in the fridge for one last rest. Preheat the oven to 375 while this is happening. After 10-15 min, whenever the oven’s preheated, place the galette in the oven and bake for 30-40 min, until it’s nice and golden brown. Mine took 35 min.
Remove from oven and let cool for a little bit so you don’t have hot cream cheese and berry juices flying everywhere. Girl, that’s dangerous.
Once cooled, either a little or completely in the fridge, slice it like you would a pie and serve. It would seriously be perfect for brunch or dessert or any occasion where you need to impress somebody.
