Peach Melba Galette (Gluten Free)
The summery flavors of peaches and raspberries, wrapped in a flakey gluten free sourdough crust, will have you swooning...and probably adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
"In school, I learned that a galette is sort of the offspring of a pie and a tart- halfway between homespun and fancy- but easier to make than its parents. The biggest difference is that a galette is a free-form pastry, baked without a pie pan or tart ring. It's rustic. And it's forgiving. You just roll it out flat and then fold it in roughly around the filling." Sam stopped and sipped her coffee. "The wonderful thing is that you can't mess it up; the crust will tear and be a little more done in places, the juices will leak, but as long as you use really fresh ingredients, like the fruit we have here, and real butter for the dough, it bakes into something magical. Making a galette really gave me confidence to try trickier desserts.”
― Viola Shipman, The Recipe Box
The flavors of Peach Melba have always been a favorite of mine. The juicy sweetness of the peaches match perfectly with the sweet-tart flavor of raspberries. The Peach Melba is a Victorian era dessert, named for the Australian coloratura soprano, Nellie Melba. It is made up of fresh peaches, vanilla ice cream and a raspberry sauce. A delightful summer treat. The chef who invented it was, Auguste Escoffier. A chef who made a name for himself by creating dishes he named after celebrities. He also invented Melba Toast for the same soprano, when she was under the weather while staying at his hotel.
This galette encompasses all the flavors of the original dessert, if you put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! A galette is an excellent starting point, when you are wanting to get into making gluten free pastry. Its rustic beauty is forgiving, while it lets you learn how to work with pastry dough. Learning how to work with pastry dough is important for all kinds pastry dough, but especially important when gluten free.
My gluten free pastry dough comes together easily and the more you work it, the easier it is to work with. The good new is, there is not gluten, so you can’t over-work the dough and make it tough! Gluten free flours absorb more water than traditional wheat flour, so you will have to us a bit more ice water. You will want to add the water mixture slowly, if you add too much the dough becomes too sticky to work with. With each fold and rest, the dough will become easier to work with, so by the time you are folding it around your fruit, it should be smooth and easy to maneuver.
For this pastry to be a true sourdough, you will need to put it together, fold it and rest it twice and then let it sit 12-24 hours to ferment. If you don’t care about it being a true sourdough, you can bake with it right away after the fold and rests. If you choose to ferment the dough or not, I’m excited to see your galette creations!
