Diary of a Mad Art Teacher... and photographer...: Peach blueberry galette and Sangria!

My dear friend Mark and I made plans waaaaay back in, say January, that on the first day it hits 80 degrees here, we were going to make and drink some Sangria!! There is some sort of story behind this that I don't really remember, but it seemed like a great excuse..... er, um, REASON at the time. So of course the first 80 degree day was at some inconvenient time when we were- God forbid- WORKING!! And so it was the first 80 degree weekend, and then I was off on an adventure of my own..... so dog gone it, we made a date!

So good old Marksie had the wine, the fruit, the brandy, and the yummy homemade salsa and so I needed to provide something besides the glasses and the deck to sit on. Mark suggested/challenged me to dessert. Maybe a Spanish dessert to go with the salsa and sangria. SPANISH??? Are you MAD???? Oh wait, that's me... um, so we had a conversation of what that could possibly entail, and a fruit and cinnamon tart was decided upon, so the rest was up to me.

I consulted first of all my favorite cooking blog- The Smitten Kitchen- as Deb bakes some really wonderful things. I have made a number of dishes/desserts from this website and I highly recommend checking it out. She has many tarts, fruit desserts and the like on there, but none were exactly what I wanted. I had blueberries in the refrigerator and I had made a scrumptious peach/blueberry cobbler last summer from Cooking Light Magazine. I knew I wanted to use those flavors in a pie crusty sort of application.

So I made up my own!

I began by using this recipe for the tart crust- a very buttery, simple crust that would merely enhance the flavors of the fruit. I used a combination of very ripe and slightly under-ripe peaches, some for flavor and some for texture, plus the blueberries. I added a minimal amount of sugar and a nice healthy dose of cinnamon. Wrapped it all up in the rolled dough and sprinkled it with Turbinado sugar. (You should hear how the MA mangles THAT word!)

After reading several of Deb's fruit tart recipes, I decided to use the technique of heating up my pizza stone in the oven for an hour to get it nice and hot. That added a really great crispness to the crust that did not get soggy, even during yesterday's humidity.

It was REALLY a good recipe in the end, and can be used with any sort of fruit filling. Actually, you could make something savory with it also, as there is very little sweetness in the crust.... hmmmmm....

Mix dry ingredients, cut up butter

Cut in butter until size of peas

Add ice water and stir until dough just holds together

Slip skins from peaches

Roll out dough thinly

Peaches, all cut up

Blueberries with peaches

Roll and pinch dough to make rustic bowl

YAY!

Peach Blueberry Galette

Tart crust:

This is the ingredient list for one galette- I doubled the recipe to make two. Obviously.

1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
6 tablespoon cold butter
icewater

Combine flour, sugar, salt in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, until butter is in pea sized pieces. Add small amounts of ice water at a time into the flour mixture until it just rolls up into a ball. Handle the dough as little as possible to keep it from getting tough. Cover and place in the refrigerator at LEAST an hour before rolling.

Filling:

per galette-

3 - 4 peaches
1/2 pint blueberries
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon

Slip skins from peaches after plunging into boiling water. Slice peaches into a bowl, and add blueberries. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste.

Procedure:

About 1/2 hour to 45 minutes before rolling dough, put pizza stone in 425 oven, if you plan to use it. Other wise heat oven to 425. Roll out ball of dough very thinly. Spoon fruit into the center of the dough. Pull and pinch the dough up and around the fruit- Making a bowl from the dough to keep the juices from running out. It will be very rustic and informal looking. Moisten dough with a tiny bit of water and sprinkle with turbinado or white sugar if desired. Work quickly so the dough can be transferred to the pizza stone without collapse. (yes, I had that problem! with one of them) I rolled my dough on the counter, assembled it on a cookie sheet and then slid it onto the pizza stone. You can figure your own way, too! Bake about 20 minutes, check for browning, and continue baking until the crust is light brown and the filling bubbling. Transfer galette from the stone or pan to a cooling rack so the crust stays crisp and doesn't get soggy.

Now try NOT to eat it until your guest arrives with his Sangria! THAT was hard!

In case you are interested.........

SANGRIA

Fill a beautiful glass pitcher with fresh, frozen fruit- orange and lemon slices, fresh pineapple, strawberries, nectarines.....

Add a yummy, fruity Cabernet Sauv, VERY COLD - we used Columbia-Crest Two Vines! Add a 1/2 cup of brandy and a can of white soda...... It is infinitely more fun to do this in layers- fruit, wine, brandy, soda, repeat! Then try to take pictures until you are silly with laughter and you haven't EVEN had more than a sip!!