Galettes are round, open face, freely formed, rustic tarts with a buttery crust and flavorful filling. These strawberry galettes have a super easy crust made entirely in a food processor and are filled with a simple fruit filling made with strawberries and the fragrant herb, lemon thyme. These are really great to make as an entry point into the pastry world because they aren’t super finicky, your crust doesn’t have to be perfect, and if you get some spillage, it really doesn’t matter! These are especially easy if you use store bought pie dough or puff pastry, then all you have to do is make the filling and assemble!
To make the dough for these strawberry galettes, just combine all of the dough ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, salt) except for the water in your food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, I would definitely recommend getting one. I love mine! Pulse the dough until mostly combined, but its okay if there are still some larger chunks of butter. Then slowly add your water until a dough is formed. If you squeeze the dough together with your hands, it should stick together. If it doesn’t, keep adding more water until it does. Once your dough is made, form it into 2 equal sized discs, wrap them in plastic wrap, and place them in your refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.
While your dough chills, make your filling. Combine all of ingredients for the filling and stir to combine. Set aside until you are ready to assemble. A quick note on lemon thyme – lemon thyme is a fragrant herb that adds a great herbal, citrus flavor. It is so delicious paired with berries, which are a a natural complement to citrus (think: lemon blueberry, lime blackberry, raspberry lime, etc.) In this galette, I pump up the citrus flavor even more by adding the juice and zest of half a lemon in the filling. If you can’t find lemon thyme, you can also use regular thyme in it’s place and add additional lemon juice and zest. But I really recommend seeking out lemon thyme, it’s such an interesting herb and flavor!
Once your dough is chilled, roll out your dough to about a 1/4 inch thickness. You can make each disc into 4 mini galettes or 1 large one. Either way, add the filling, leaving some empty crust around the edge so you can fold it over the filling. Try to make sure you don’t have any rips or tears in your crust so your filling doesn’t leak out of the edges. If you do, just take a little dough from somewhere else to try and patch it up. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s meant to be rustic! Once your galettes are assembled, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Then bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown all over. Repeat with the remaining dough disk. Top your strawberry galettes with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!
Strawberry Lemon Thyme Galettes
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 sticks unsalted butter frozen and cut into walnut size pieces
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/3-1/2 cup ice water
For the filling:
- 3 cups thinly sliced strawberries
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3-4 tbsp granulated sugar depending on the sweetness of your berries
- 1 tbsp lemon thyme leaves
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Juice and zest of half a medium lemon
For the topping:
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
- Coarse sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
For the dough:
- In a food processor, combine all of the dough ingredients except for the ice water. Pulse until mostly combined – it's okay if there are still some larger chunks of butter.
- Slowly add the water while pulsing the mix in your food processor until a dough starts to form. It should still look crumbly, but if you squeeze the dough together it should stick. If it doesn't stick, continue to add water until it does.
- Form 2 equal sized disks and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour.
For the filling:
- Combine all of the filling ingredients and stir to combine.
- Set aside until you are ready to assemble. You want to keep the dough as cold as possible while you you are working with it so you want to have everything prepared before you roll out your dough.
- Make the egg wash while you wait for the dough to chill, as well. Combine the egg and water and whisk together. Set aside until you are ready to bake your galettes.
- When your dough is almost chilled, preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
To assemble:
- Once your dough is chilled, remove one of the disks from the refrigerator. You will work with one dough piece at a time so it can stay as cold as possible.
- Each disk can be used to make 1 larger galette or 4 smaller ones. I like to mix and match! You can use one disk for a larger galette to serve now, and then save the smaller galettes for a special breakfast throughout the week. They also make great really goodie bag gifts!
- To make 1 larger galette – roll out the dough to a rough circular shape that is about 1/4 inch in thickness. Fill the galette with half of the berry filling, leaving about 1.5 to 2 inches of space around the edge so you can fold that crust over the filling.
- To make 4 smaller galettes, you have 2 options. You can roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness or slightly thinner to make the dough as large as possible. Then you can cut out 4 equal sized circles (using a small bowl or large circular cookie cutter). This will make for a neater galette. Alternatively, since galettes are meant to be rustic anyway, you can just slice your rolled out dough into 4 semi equal sized rectangles and use that for your mini galettes.
- Once your dough is rolled out and cut to the correct size for your mini galettes, fill with about a heaping 1/4 cup of berry filling, leaving about 1-1.5 inches of space around the edge so you can fold that crust over the filling.
- This is meant to be a rustic tart, so just fold the edges over the filling as nicely as you can, trying to make sure there are no breaks in the sides of the dough.
- Transfer to your prepared baking dish and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle all over with coarse sugar.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown all over. Repeat with the remaining disk.
- Using a rubber spatula, transfer the galettes to a cooling rack and allow to cool slightly.
- Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy!
