Cooking Light Plum Galette

Plum Galette from Cooking Light

This recipe is from the June 2005 issue of Cooking Light.  It also appears in two of their books -- Cooking Light Dessert (ISBN:  0-8487-3066-6), page 86; and Five Star Recipes. (ISBN:  978-0-8487-3242-4), page 392





It was a hit!!  I will definitely be making this again - perhaps with peaches or apples.  Or even combining other fruits together.

I am getting more confident making crust from scratch, especially with the food processor -- easy-peasy!

A galette is a rustic, free-form crust/tart.  We bought plums from Costco, and while you can't beat the price, two people can only eat so many plums per day.  When they started to soften, I decided to turn them into this.  Bonus is the jam leftovers. The jam will keep up to a few weeks in the refrigerator.  And boy, did it taste good on some toasted slices of Central Market's Seedsation bread for Halloween breakfast!

Love the pumpkin and bat sprinkles?

Fair warning, it is a bit time-scheduling intensive, if you are making the jam and starting from scratch.   You may want to make the jam ahead of time.  Then make the crust and allow time for chilling.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons ice water
1 tablespoon cornmeal - I skipped this
4 medium plums, each cut into 8 wedges
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup Plum Jam*
1 tablespoon Plum Jam*
1 tablespoon sugar

*Plum Jam --
4 1/2 cups chopped ripe red plums (about 8 medium)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Dough --
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, butter, and salt in a food processor; process until mixture resembles coarse meal. With processor on, slowly add ice water through food chute, processing just until combined (do not form a ball). Press mixture gently into a 4-inch circle on plastic wrap. Cover and chill 30 minutes.

Jam --

Combine plums, sugar, and water in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Uncover and simmer 50 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken, skimming foam from surface of mixture occasionally. Cool; pour into an airtight container. (Mixture will thicken as it cools.) Cover and chill.

about 50 minutes later

Note: Refrigerate jam in an airtight container for up to three weeks.

Preheat oven to 425°.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; sprinkle paper with cornmeal (I skipped the cornmeal part). Unwrap dough; roll dough into a 9-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. (I rolled between two sheets of  plastic wrap.) 

Apprehensive moment ahead, will it peel away nicely in one piece?
(It did!)

Place dough on baking sheet on top of parchment paper. Combine plums and cornstarch in a large bowl, tossing to coat. Add 1/4 cup Plum Jam; toss well to coat. Arrange plum mixture on top of dough, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border.

Fold edges of dough over plum mixture. Bake at 425º for 20 minutes.

Remove galette from oven (do not turn oven off). Brush crust with 1 tablespoon Plum Jam; sprinkle galette with sugar. Bake at 425º for 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes before serving.   6 servings

Note: Nutritional analysis includes Plum Jam.

Calories: 208
Calories from fat: 32%
Fat: 7.3g
Saturated fat: 3.4g
Monounsaturated fat: 2.8g
Polyunsaturated fat: 0.3g
Protein: 2.8g
Carbohydrate: 33.8g
Fiber: 1.6g
Cholesterol: 18mg
Iron: 1mg
Sodium: 146mg
Calcium: 5mg

This does not factor in topping with a scoop of Bluebell Homemade Vanilla ice cream while it is still warm...