Blueberry Galette

After a raving success with making Homemade Wheat Thins, I decided to give another dough a try: the pie crust. Not unlike the cracker dough I'd already had success with, I was hopeful for pie dough. It's supposed to be something that is to die-for, can't-go-back-to-store-bought, must-wrap-everything-I-cook-in-it good. Store bought dough is for people who buy their produce at Wal-Mart (assuming they purchase produce at all), feed their kids from the drive-through for dinner, and think mid-range national chain restaurants are fine dining. I am not supposed to be a store-bought pie dough person, and in a way, I'm not. On most pie doughs, I can at least read the ingredient names, but that doesn't necessarily make me feel any better (partially hydrogenated lard... I think I'll pass). I wanted something simple, delicious, and maybe just a little better for me than partially hydrogenated lard and bleached flour.

I had some blueberries handy, and did not want to have an entire pie in the house, so I made galettes, which require no special pan. This batch of pie dough made three galettes, each big enough to serve about 3 people. I altered the recipe for the crust from Simply Recipes Perfect Pie Crust, cutting it in half and substituting unbleached wheat flour for all-purpose (yay, now it's healthy! haha). The final crust was far from perfect, as the photo evidence proves, but I am willing to try, try again in hopes of reaching something nearer to perfection.

GALETTES

crust ( Pâte Brisée ):

1 ¼ cups unbleached wheat flour
1 stick unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into ½ inch cubes
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

blueberry filling:

½ cup almond paste, crumbled
¾ cup blueberries
3 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425°

Toss the blueberries with the lemon juice and set aside.

Place the dry crust ingredients in a food processor, and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter, and pulse until the dry ingredients and butter come together in pea-sized clumps. Not all of the flour will be in clumps at this point, and that is fine. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, and give the mixture a few pulses until everything begins to clump together. You should be able to pinch the dough into something that resembles a tiny bit of pie crust between your fingers.

For each galette:

Place ⅓ of the dough crumbles onto a floured surface and mold into a ball. Roll it out into a circle about 8" in diameter. Curse your rolling pin that is CLEARLY defective for not rolling it out evenly the first time, and then try again. Tear the dough, seal up the crack, and hope no one notices, because galettes are supposed to look "rustic". Place ⅓ of the crumbled almond paste in the middle, topped with a ⅓ of the blueberry mixture, leaving a 1" border of dough.