Berry Rye Galettes

Last summer, I remember reading an article in the New York Times about anxiety over the bounty of summer produce from the farmer's market, and I felt like I'd stepped into my own personal AA meeting. Or shall I say, "FA."  Berries and cherries. Berries and cherries. Baskets and bushels of them. They are everywhere. All around. And now peaches. And they don't have that long of a peak. The sites on which I'm hooked: TheKitchn and Food52, are all about tarts, crumbles and crisps right now, encouraging the cooking of these pure, in-season fruits. I've been watching this all from the sidelines, and with the exception of this one roasted strawberry batch, I can't help eating these berries raw, in relish-mode: a pile of blueberries on morning yogurt and granola, dressed in honey, a late afternoon handful of cherries, thankful that they just taste like berries should! And then-- the Internet. And its crumbles and tarts. I thought the moment would come in a month or so, when the berries were inching past their prime, perhaps my kitchen was a bit cooler in temperature and I'd be compelled by default to cook the buds tucked into dough, but, I can't not do this now. So, I did this. 

I started with my Kim Boyce Good To the Grain cookbook and made the rye pastry to modify the recipe for the Apricot Boysenberry Tart in a Rye Crust. Despite the anxiety I feel around the plethora of available fruits at the moment, I have seen neither apricots nor boysenberries by me yet. So that was one thing that would be different. I did have a scattering of raspberries, strawberries some stray tart cherries and a peach, though, and some strawberry jam on hand, so I decided that's what I'd work with. And the second thing I'd modify was the size of the tarts. Since Boyce smartly has you freeze the formed tarts raw before baking them, for as little as an hour and up to a month, I figured I could get four tarts out of one round of dough (actually half a recipe of the Boyce book dough in general) and bake them off as I wanted them. So I made the dough, then divided that in half, and in half again. I formed two tartlets, both when folded up measuring around 3 inches each, froze them, and baked one so far. The other half of the dough itself is also in the freezer for use later. As I mentioned in the Peanut Butter Cookies post, freezing raw is very convenient.

This dough. I've told you about it before, when I used it for a savory brussels sprouts galette. It starts as a rough ball you rest in the fridge and then magically becomes smooth when you fold it like a letter and roll it, and then rest it again. While I've experimented with another way of making tart dough, similar to this, but working the butter in differently, bowl-lessly (is that a word?) with your palm, and mentioned it in a post on the wonders of Chez Pim, I wanted to stay true to Boyce here, really use the rye flour the way she calls for (this is a half all-purpose, half-rye ratio with less butter than Pim's), as well as Boyce's in-bowl technique. What both of the methods have in common though, is the rolling and folding of the dough, thus making this dough an exercise in zen alleviation of anxiety as it is.

And the tarts! Yes! Bake the fruits in season. They'll bubble and soften, and the crust crisps and after waiting a few minutes for them to cool, you have your own little tart in a deliciously rustic crust. I loved doing the little tartlet concept because we are only two people here and actually one of them is perfect splitting-size for that afternoon nosh or evening treat, but by all means, one big tart is also a good idea for a larger group. Not surprisingly, my only issue here was perhaps going a little heavy-handed on the fruit filling for the tartlets, since they are small. Next round I'd scale back just a tad and maybe drain the juices a little more before plopping the fruit mix into the dough. But at the same time...Boyce assures a little berry bubbling/dripping/caramelizing while the tarts are on their last leg in the oven is just what signifies their done-ness. And that's exactly what happened.

Berry-Peach Tartlets in a Rye Crust

Adapted from Good to the Grain

Notes: This dough recipe makes enough for one 9-10 inch tart (size when folded in). You can either make one large one or 4 small ones (or even three). Baking time for me for the smalls was about 35 minutes since they were frozen raw.

1 Disc **Rustic Rye Tart Dough

Heaping 1/2 cup jam of your choice

2 small peaches, peeled, sliced

3/4 c berries

2 T sugar

Egg wash:

1 beaten egg

1 T turbinado sugar mixed with a pinch cinnamon 

Mix the peaches in one bowl and the berries in the other. Mix 1-2 T sugar into each bowl, depending on the sweetness the fruit already has. Take a large spoonful of jam and carefully mix into each bowl, aiming to not break up the fruit. Set not too far aside.

After you've made the dough, divide it into 4 equal parts with a bench scraper or sharp knife. Keep the others refrigerated and work with one piece of dough at a time. Roll it out a bit carefully, thin but not too thin (see above photo). I like to put a piece of plastic over it and essentially roll it between plastic. Add a pinch flour if you have any sticking. Transfer to parchment. 

Smear a scant tablespoon jam on the center of the tart. Top with a few peach slices and top with the berry mix, nestling them into the peaches. Tuck the dough over the center and pinch a tad, folding it in just so it creates a nest. Set this one in the freezer while you repeat with the other pieces of dough. 

When the tarts are formed, freeze them for a minimum of one hour and up to a month tightly wrapped in plastic. When ready to bake, beat the egg well into a milky yellow wash and brush the sides of the dough with it, then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar. Set on a parchment-lined sheet at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until the crust is dark tan and the fruit is bubbly. 

**Rustic Rye Tart Dough:
Note: Allow at least 3 hours from when you make it to before you plan to use this dough. For best planning, just make the dough when you randomly have time and assemble the tarts another day.

1/2 c rye flour
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 T very cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. 
4 T ice water

Sift Dry ingredients into a bowl. Cube butter. It is a good idea to set the dry ingredients and the cubed butter into the freezer while you prep everything else. Next, add butter on top of flour and work flour and butter between your fingers or with a pastry blender, so the dough forms pea size crumbs. Add the cider vinegar and the water. Working from the sides, gather dough to center so it forms a ball. Transfer to a piece of plastic wrap, shape/flatten it slightly into a ball,  wrap tightly, refrigerate an hour minimum.

Get out a rolling pin and lay a piece of parchment or plastic out. Sprinkle it with flour, lay the dough disk on the parchment, sprinkle with flour very lightly. Place plastic or parchment on top of the dough if desired. Now roll it into a rectangle.

Now, fold the dough like a letter, the left side in then the right on top of it.

Roll it out again into a rectangle, rotate, fold like a letter again. You are creating layers. Do this twice more, then roll into a rectangle again.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate again for an hour minimum, up to three days, or freeze for a few weeks and thaw in fridge for a day.