Cranberry Lime Galette (Dorie Greenspan)

Can you believe that it is mid-November now and there is 5 more weeks to Christmas?

When Joyce from Kitchen Flavours suggested the theme, Galette to bake along with Lena from Frozen wings and me, all I want to bake is a cranberry galette!!!

In French, galette is a term used to designate various types of flat round or free form crusty cakes. It can be a pastry or a pancake made with buckwheat flour. In French Canada, galette is a free form flat round cake of pastry often topped with any fruits like peaches, plums, strawberries, blueberries, cherries or apples like these that are made at here, here, here and here. Besides being sweet, galettes can be savoury with any savoury toppings like tomatoes, prosciutto or any cheese.

Why cranberry galette?

"If it's Christmas it must be cranberries..." - Nigella Lawson in her book, Feast.

Maybe the arriving Christmas is reminding me that it's cranberry baking time and so I have baked this.

Cranberry lime galette

Glad that I wanted a cranberry galette and baked this galette with the recipe from the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

This galette is awesome!

The pastry is short, flaky and delicious as it melt into my mouth. Every slice of it is bursting with cranberries. The addition of lime and ginger gives the filling so much more fragrance, zing and warmth. The overall sweetness, texture and taste is simply perfect!

To start, this is how I made the pastry. Chill for at least 1 hr before rolling.
I like to stick the use of frozen shortening (added in a small percentage) for its extra flakiness. 

I have pre-roasted the almond meal to minimise its raw taste.

These frozen cranberries are thawed and pat dry with paper towels.

These are the ingredients to make the filling.

Peel. Cut. Grate. And combine all!

Transfer the cut pastry on the baking paper onto a baking tray and do the rest of the assembling steps.

It is important to do this step quickly as the pastry will become difficult to handle when it softens up at room temperature.

Ops! I forgot to sprinkle the sugar before baking and so I did this step on my half-baked galette and it was still ok.
After baking... Although the fruits hasn't been pre-cooked, the filling wasn't wet at all... Nice!

Happy!

After enjoying these, I know that Christmas is near!

Here's the recipe that is mostly adapted from the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Original recipe makes one large 9 inches that serves 6 and mine is half of the original.

Make one medium ~ 14 cm (5 1/2 inches) galette that serves 3-4

For the crust (Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough):
3/4 cup (110g) all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting and rolling
1 tbsp (10g) caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp (75g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into tablespoon-size pieces
1 1/4 tbsp (20g) frozen vegetable shortening, Crisco trans fat free type - please try not to substitute this with butter as this addition makes the pastry taste really good!
2 tbsp (30 ml) ice cold water

For the filling:
3 tbsp (30g) almond meal, pre-roasted at 180°C for 5 mins or until fragrant
1 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and pat dry)
1/2 medium apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1 cm (1/2 inch) chunks (I used pink lady)
3 tbsp dried cranberries
60g coconut sugar or light brown sugar
1 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
grated zest of 1 small lime

1 tbsp granulated or caster sugar to sprinkle
Icing sugar to dust and serve, optional and I didn't do this.

To make the crust:
Combine flour, sugar and salt in a food processor (if you are using a food processor) or a large mixing bowl (if you are mixing by hand). Pulse (using the food processor) or rub (using your fingertips) butter and shortening into the flour, sugar and salt mixture until just combined. Do not overdo the mixing - Mixture should be a combination of pea-sized and barley-grain-sized crumbs.

While pulsing or mixing by hand, add water gradually, just enough to form a dough. Wrap dough with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hr before rolling.

To make the filling:
Toss cranberries, apple chunks, dried cranberries, sugar, ginger and lime zest in a mixing bowl until just combined.

To assemble:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Have a large baking tray ready for assembling and baking. It is important to work quickly for these assembly steps as the pastry will become difficult to handle if it softens at room temperature.

Place a large baking paper on your working area. Use a minimal amount of flour dust your rolling pin and baking paper. Roll the dough into a large circle with 2-3mm (1/8 inch) thickness. Trim dough to a large circle (about 20-22 cm diameter) and transfer the baking paper with the rolled dough on it onto the baking tray. Use a 14 cm cake pan or pot lid as a template to mark the center of the dough. Sprinkle the marked area with almond meal first, then top with the cranberry filling. Gently lift the unfilled border of dough up and onto the filling. As the dough is placed onto the filling, it will pleat. Brush the dough very lightly with a little water, then sprinkle it with caster sugar or do the sprinkling later when the galette has been half-baked.

Bake the galette for 35-40 mins, or until the crust is brown, the cranberries have popped and the filling is bubbling. If you have not sprinkle your galette with sugar before baking, you might want to sprinkle the sugar when your galette is half-baked (20 mins after baking) - do not use water to brush if you do the sprinkling in the midst of baking. Note: During baking, I noticed that the dried cranberries tend to brown before the fresh / thawed cranberries start to bubble and pop. If this happens, cover the galette loosely with foil after 30 mins of baking and reduce the oven temperature to 180°C and bake it for at least 45 mins in total.

Allow the galatte to cool slightly on the baking tray for 10 mins.

Very carefully slide a large spatula or a cake lifter under the galette and slip it onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar, optional. Serve when it is just warm or when it has reached room temperature. 

Happy Baking

Please support me and like me at Facebook...

Please note that the linky tool for bake-along is no longer available.