“Siri, what are healthy coping mechanisms?” 

I posed this question to my phone last week in a futile attempt to have someone (anyone!) validate my dubious life choices. I had hoped Siri would inform me in his familiar clipped tones that excessive baking is indeed a positive strategy to deal with life’s many stressors. But, as I scrolled through the suggested articles about the benefits of physical activity and the importance of getting enough sleep, I didn’t come across anything that recommended I panic-bake a chocolate cake at 7 o’clock on a Wednesday morning and eat it hunched over the sink for breakfast. Odd!

As you might have gathered, baking has been one of my greatest sources of comfort during these tumultuous months. Galettes have been a particular obsession this past year, for reasons that I was unable to articulate until I read chef and writer Tamar Adler’s piece for The New York Times titled, “It’s a Hellscape Out There. Try a Galette”. As Adler writes, “They’re messy. They’re forgiving. They’re the pastry form we need in 2020.” Given the current state of the world, I suspect that they’re the pastry form we also need in 2021. So, today I’m sharing with you a galette recipe that I have long been perfecting, which includes a mix of savoury and sweet filling options to suit whatever mood you’re in. Happy? Confused? Stressed? Make a galette. I can’t promise you it’ll reap the same rewards as a jog in the park or a 9 hour sleep, but it’s certainly worked a treat for me and I will continue to make them, with or without Siri’s blessing.

Ingredients:

• 250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour

• 180g (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter

• Big pinch of granulated sugar (I add an extra pinch if I’m making a sweet filling)

• Few pinches of salt

• 80ml (1/3 cup) ice-cold water (a little more or less as needed)

Method:

• Measure out the water and pop it in the fridge (about an hour before you plan to start baking).

• Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor (if you don’t own a food processor, just mix them in a bowl with a wooden spoon).

• Cut the cold butter into small cubes and add them to the processor. Blitz until the pieces are pea-sized, but be careful not to over-work it! If doing this manually, rub your fingertips through the mixture to combine the butter and flour.

• Slowly drizzle in the cold water until the dough begins to hold together. You might need a little more or less water, so just trust your instincts on this. You want it to hold together nicely, but don’t want it to be too wet.

• Wrap up the dough in cling film/plastic wrap (or a sustainable alternative!) and let it sit in the fridge for 1-2 hours (I usually do at least 2). Letting it rest will leave you with a softer, flakier pastry! There’s a good explanation of how that process works here.

• When you're nearly ready to take the dough out of the fridge, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

• Tear off a piece of parchment paper and lay it out on a flat surface. Tip your dough out onto the paper (mind you, the dough might need a few minutes to warm up after you pull it out of the fridge). Have some extra flour on hand for dusting and use a rolling pin (or wine bottle - no judgment here) to roll out the pastry to about 13-ish inches in diameter (again, use your instincts here - you don’t want it so thin that it’ll break when you add your filling).

• Transfer the paper + rolled-out dough to a baking tray and use a fork to lightly prick a few holes in the dough.

• Add whatever filling you’d like (I’ve included some ideas below), leaving an inch or two border. Gently fold the edges of the pastry inward and add an egg wash to the rim of the dough for a nice shiny finish (crack an egg into a bowl, beat it and brush it on the pastry).

• Bake the galette in the oven for anywhere between 45 - 60 minutes. The pastry should be golden on top when it’s ready!

The Filling

Now here’s the fun part! You can really get creative here. If you’re in the mood for savoury, I experimented with a ricotta, lemon and zucchini recipe that I think is super tasty: 

• Thinly slice 1 large (or 2 small) zucchini into rounds and thinly slice 3 (or more!) cloves of garlic. 

• Toss the zucchini and garlic in a bowl, add sea salt, a few twists of black pepper, the zest + juice of a lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix together.

• In a separate bowl, add anywhere from 150-250g of ricotta, a bit of lemon zest, salt and pepper. Stir.

• Slather a thick layer of the ricotta on the pastry, then place the zucchini rounds in an overlapping pattern on top.

• Bake it in the oven for 45-60 minutes until the pastry is golden and the garlic is crispy.

• Serve it warm or cold with an extra drizzle of olive oil and some crunchy sea salt flakes. 

• Note: I’ve also done something similar where I swapped out the zucchini and lemon and instead used thinly sliced potato with rosemary and a drizzle of balsamic reduction to finish.

As for sweet, the options are endless. I was back home in Canada last year and was spoiled with an abundance of juicy, local Ontario peaches. I used the filling part of this recipe to make the ultimate peach galette. In the autumn, I switched to Nigella Lawson’s blackberry galette recipe, which was delicious. Seeing as we’re still in the height of winter here in the U.K,, think about what seasonal fruits you can use right now (apple and cinnamon sounds like a heavenly pairing this time of year). Don’t be afraid to experiment with different flavour combinations and take comfort in the knowledge that most galettes can be saved by a very large helping of vanilla ice cream!

Recipe originally appeared here, in Arielle’s newsletter, Spilt Milk.