Impress Your Guests with a Spring Galette from Hewn Bakery

The weekend is for lazy afternoons spent enjoying good food with good friends (and maybe a few good drinks?) What if you could do all that, and impress your friends with some serious skill in the kitchen? We have you covered, thanks to Hewn Bakery and their Head Baker Ellen King.

Just outside the city in Evanston, Hewn was started by Ellen and her business partner, Julie Matthei, to serve hand-forged artisan bread. And boy, did it ever! After opening in 2013 with the goal of providing the community with authentic and genuine products, they now make sustainably grown and thoughtfully created in-house from scratch daily. Ellen sources local and seasonal ingredients from local farmers to cook up all kinds of tasty treats, including sweet galettes (French, crunchy cakes). If you want to get your bake on this weekend too, she has shared a special galette recipe, just with us, that will help you embrace your inner culinary genius. Just follow the steps below!

Seasonal Galette

Dough Ingredients

• ½  tsp salt
• 2 ½ cups AP Flour
• ½  Cup ice cold water
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 sticks Plugra butter, cut into small cubes

Fruit Ingredients

• (Depends on season) we like pears, apples, peaches, plums
• 3-4 peaches, pit removed and sliced ¼ thick.
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla paste or extract
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ tsp cornstarch or flour

Dough Preparation

1. In a medium bowl add the salt and flour.
2. Using a bowl scraper, slowly pour in the water and mix until the water is absorbed, then add the vanilla extract.
3. Using your fingers slowly add the butter to the flour and squeeze the butter to mix into the dough. A food processor could be used to slowly add the butter, but it is better to gently mash in the butter so it evenly coats the flour mix.
4. Once all the butter is added, there will still be visible patches, flatten the dough into a saucer and wrap with plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or let it sit overnight.
5. While the dough rests prepare the seasonal fruit.

Fruit Preparation

6. In a medium size bowl add the cut peaches (or seasonal fruit).
7. Sprinkle with the salt, add the vanilla, sugar and corn starch.
8. Stir with a wooden spoon and let the fruit macerate (5-10 minutes).

Putting it all Together

9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
10. After the dough rests, lightly flour a counter and roll the dough out to a thickness no more than 1/4 of an inch.
11. Use a cereal bowl to cut circles of dough.
12. Place the rolled, cut rounds on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. 12. Spread them out so there is 1 inch between each round.
13. Take 2 spoons worth of fruit (peaches) into the center of the rolled out dough. Leave about ½ inch around the edge of the dough so you can fold the edge over itself to create a crust.
14. Start at one edge of the fruit filled dough, and fold the crust over, ¼ inch to shape a natural crust. This will allow the fruit to stay inside the galette. Don’t worry if it looks rough or ugly, it is just meant to create a lip that will keep the fruit in the middle.
15. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the bottoms have been cooked through.