Fruit Galette

Janet here: 'Tis the season of fresh fabulous fruit here in the Northeast, unlike Rachel's world where fresh fruit is available all year long and I try not to hate her for it but it's really difficult believe me just around January when the only fruit in my world is an orange and a dubious apple.

But I digress. We had friends for dinner this past weekend, and I wanted to use up some peaches that were a little too ripe. And then I bought some fabulous raspberries and tossed in a nectarine just because I could. Result? Wonderfulness. If you want a fruit dessert and are tired of crumbles or crisps, try this. You won't be sorry.

Fruit Galette

ingredients
for the filling
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch nutmeg
1 1/2 pounds fruit of your choice. If peaches or something like that cut into wedges.

for crust
1 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
ice water as needed

method
To make the crust, combine the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse a few times. Then add the butter pieces and pulse until the butter is cut into the flour pieces and looks like peas. Sprinkle the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, over the butter-flour mixture and pulse after each addition. Do this until the dough forms small lumps.

Put the dough onto a lightly-floured surface and form into a disk about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until well chilled. (I have also frozen it at this point because I usually make two at once because basically I hate making pie-ish dough, and that works fine too. If you double the recipe and do that, thaw it in the fridge the night before and then take out to thaw further...although don't let it become too soft because of course then rolling is a problem. But you probably knew that.)

To make filling, stir together 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the cornstarch and the nutmeg with the fruit.

Put the rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 400 degrees.

Unwrap the dough disk and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out into as close to a round disk about 12-14 inches in diameter as you can. Do not freak out if it's not round...mine looked more like one of those cancer moles the doctor's office warns you to do something about, but I was able to make the edges just fine with a little creative pasting of dough where needed.

Put the dough on the baking sheet that is covered with parchment paper (seriously one of the great inventions, don't you think?). Make a mound of the fruit in the middle and then start turning up the edges, pinching as you go to try to make sure none of the fruit juices will seep out. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on the crust.

Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake until the crust is golden and the juices are bubbling, about 12 minutes longer. Let cool on the pan. Then transfer to a wire rack after 5 minutes. Let cool completely and serve. Ice cream or whipped cream optional.