So I a little bit of a preamble here. I’ve always made pie crust for pies and galettes the old-fashioned way with a pastry cutter and my hands. No real reason for this, just, it’s the way my grandmother did it, and I live in a small Brooklyn apartment and I don’t have a Cuisinart because I wouldn’t use it for that much and it’s not worth the cabinet space it would take up.
When I’ve made galettes in the past, which I’ve made with some frequency — they are about half of the work all of the satisfaction of making a pie — I’ve made a single crust by hand with a pastry cutter and not thought much about it. However, last weekend, I watched Claire Saffiz make Pop Tarts from scratch and in watching her tests and trials, it got me thinking about the optimal galette crust.
So in the video, Claire first makes a traditional pie crust, she does so by blitzing the flour, salt, and butter in a food processor until it resembles damp sand and then overturning it into a large mixing bowl and adding ice water a tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. You can see this at the 8:38 minute mark. Or, in these screenshots:
The resulting crust, which can be seen at the 14:00 minute mark, or in the screen shots below, is decidedly flaky and an optimal pie crust. However, it’s definitely too flaky for a Pop Tart.
And so in her second test, Claire blitzes the flour, salt, and butter in a food processor until it resembles damp sand and then alternates adding a tablespoon of water and briefly blitzing it until it begins to come together. She then overturns it into a mixing bowl and kneads it briefly. This is zipped over pretty quickly, but can be seen at the 19:00 minute mark or in these screen shots:
The result of this crust can be see at the 26:00 minutes mark, or in the screen shot below. It’s still flaky, it’s still just as buttery, but it’s a bit more flat and uniform.
As I said, this really got me thinking about the optimal galette crust which, considering the weight of the fruit inside and the double layered at the edges, maybe a flatter, more uniform crust assembled entirely in the food processor is the way to go. And so then I tried it and not only was it great, but the entire process and technique is really easy and fuss-free and is entirely in-line with the ethos of a simpler, more rustic galette.
So finally, here is the recipe.
Ingredients
160 grams all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
115 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
20 grams of Parmesan cheese
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water, plus more as needed
First, if you have the wearwhithall, put your butter in the freezer about 30 minutes to an hour before you start
Second, blitz the flour, salt, butter, and Parmesan cheese in the food processor until it resembles damp sand
Third, alternate between adding a tablespoon of ice water and blitzing for about 5-8 seconds until the crust begins to come together —the crust will quite literally begin to ball up just on top of the blades
Fourth, overturn the dough into a mixing bowl and knead it together briefly — I did three traditional fold-in-half-and-press-it-with-the-heel-of-my-hand kneads
Fifth, form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap an refrigerate at least 30 minutes