Olallieberry Peach Galette

Olallieberry Peach Galette is a fabulous summer dessert. Without all the waiting and pie making the ethereal combination of a buttery crust and sweet summer berries is all yours with Olallieberry Peach Galette.

“Liza was rolling out pie crust on the floury board. She was so expert with the rolling pin that the dough seemed alive. It flattened out and then pulled back a little from the tension in itself. Liza lifted the pale sheet of it and laid it over one of the pie tins and trimmed the edges with a knife. The prepared berries lay deep in red juice in a bowl.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

Olallieberry Peach Galette is more instant dessert gratification than pie. Especially with Olallieberries. These are fragile and juicy berries, a pie cut too soon will be a glorious mess of sweet, fragrant berry juice. Waiting for the Olallieberry pie to firm up is more self restraint than I wanted to impose on myself. With Olallieberry Peach Galette
the ethereal combination of a buttery crust and sweet summer berries is all yours, without all the waiting and pie making. Who has time to make pie when Olallieberry jam needs to be made?

Developed in Oregon, Olallieberries are a cross of logan and young berries. They grow well in the warm outlying areas of the central coast of California. Olallieberries have a unique tart, rich berry flavor. The exterior of the berry is deep purple when ripe, while the interior of the berry remains a deep ruby red. The berries are very fragile. When compressed olallies release their deep red juice. Ripe berries gently harvested and placed on top of each other in the morning will be puddled in juice by afternoon.

Essentials

For the Olallieberry Peach Galette I recommend an all butter crust, instead of half butter, half vegetable shortening. I’m not sure which crust is better. Both are an excellent vehicle to cradle all the summer fruit that can be heaped inside. The local Olallieberry season is short. Use blackberries or boysenberries, any cane berries bursting with summer will make a memorable galette. A few slices of peaches or nectarines add color, a layer of summer sunshine and bright flavor to the Olallieberry Peach Galette. If the stone fruit is thinly sliced it will bake at the same rate as the juicy berries. Thinly sliced stone fruit doesn’t need peeling either. With ripe peaches the skin may just slide off when slicing.

	Galette Crust (makes 2 galettes)
1C	cold unsalted butter
1/3C-1/2C	ice cold water
1T	white vinegar
2-1/2C	all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1T	sugar
1t	fine grain sea salt
	Olallieberry Peach Galette Filling
1	egg yolk
4C	Olallieberries, blackberries or boysenberries
1C	thinly sliced peaches or nectarines
1C	sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the crust
1/4C	all-purpose flour
1/2t	fine grain sea salt
1/4t	cinnamon

1. Cube the butter and freeze for at least twenty minutes. Mix the ice water and vinegar together. In the bowl of a food processor add the flour, sugar and salt. Pulse to combine. Add the chilled butter and pulse a few times until the butter is the size of small coins, mostly dimes and a few pennies. Scrape the flour mixture into large bowl. Pour 3 tablespoons of the ice cold water into the bowl and mix together. I use a flexible bench scraper to mix the pastry dough, it makes easy work of gathering it all together while following the contours of the bowl. The dough will come together in large clumps. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time if the dough is too dry. Do not over mix. Scrape the dough out on a floured work surface. Knead or push the mass a few times to bring the dough together in a ball, divide into two pieces. Shape them each into a flattened circle and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours, overnight is even better. If making one galette, wrap the second piece of dough tightly in plastic wrap, label and freeze to use later.
2. Heat the oven to 375°. Line a sheet pan with parchment. Prepare an egg wash by whisking the egg yolk and a tablespoon of water together. Place the Olallieberries and peaches in a large bowl and add the sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon. Gently fold, without breaking up the berries, until all the fruit is coated with the sugar mixture.
3. With a floured rolling pin on a lightly floured work surface roll out the dough approximately in a 1/8” thick circle. Fold the dough in quarters, without stretching, and transfer to the center of the prepared sheet pan. Unfold the dough, without stretching, and pile all the fruit mixture in the center. Spread the fruit in an even thickness across the center of the dough, leaving a 2-1/2” border. Fold the edges of the dough up and over the fruit, making overlapping layers. Brush the exposed crust with the prepared egg wash and generously sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake the galette at 375° for 40-45 minutes. Check the galette at 30 minutes, baking time will depend the density of the fruit filling. When the galette is ready the crust will become deeply browned and the fruit juices will bubble up throughout the galette. If the galette is cut while warm, be prepared for juicy servings. Waiting until the galette has totally cooled and the filling has jelled is an accomplishment in self-restraint.