Strawberry Rhubarb Rose Galettes {gluten-free}

Rosewater is the secret ingredient that makes these strawberry rhubarb galettes in a flaky whole-grain gluten-free crust taste like pure magic. Adapted from Sweeter Off the Vine by Yossy Arefi.

I’m listening to Gregorian chants while I edit photos of these flaky little pielets. Choral music often helps me focus, but today it seems especially fitting because biting into one of these sweet treats, especially when warm from the oven and smothered in drippy ice cream, is a religious experience. Crisp crust shatters against tender fruit, and flavors emerge one after another: floral vanilla, tart rhubarb, sweet berries, earthy oat and millet flours, butter, lemon, and finally a whiff of perfumy rose that forces you to take another bite, then another, before you can stop yourself.

At least, this is how I spent my afternoon yesterday, après-shoot, licking ice cream and red juice off my fingers while sitting on the couch and being stared at by a hungry cat.

The base recipe comes from Sweeter Off the Vine: Fruit Desserts for Every Season, by the inimitable Yossy Arefi. If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, you must – it’s a work of art. And Bay Area peeps – don’t miss Yossy’s booksigning at Omnivore Books in San Francisco on Thursday May 5th, 2016.

The original recipe pairs batons of rhubarb with lemon, vanilla bean, and rosewater in an über-flaky crust (which Sam captured so beautifully here). I traded in my favorite gluten-free crust recipe, which has a few secret ingredients of its own. A handful of flours including oat and millet form a flavorful base, chia seed takes the place of the usual gums to hold the dough together in flaky layers, and buttermilk adds tenderness. When given a fraisage and a turn in the manner of puff pastry, the result tastes just like a whole-wheat pie crust. In fact, I literally forget that it’s gluten-free every time I take a bite of it. I’ve used this dough for pie, pie, and more pie, rustic tarts, tarte tatin, and sweet and savory galettes. I have some fun alternative flour variations in my upcoming book, whose new cover shows off the pie dough, too. And so does Yossy, who gives variations of her flaky dough made with with rye and spelt flours in her book – YUM.

We got a bundle of beautiful rhubarb stalks from Mary, Jay’s mom, when we visited her thriving garden in Corralitos last weekend, so I turned to Yossy’s book for inspiration. In her intro to the recipe she writes, “Rhubarb galettes are almost always my first baking project each spring because they combine my favorite ingredient (rhubarb) and with my favorite preparation, galettes.” A baker after my own heart! At the last minute, I decided to throw strawberries in the mix because: strawberries. They turned out to pair beautifully with the sweet/tart/floral flavors going on. I also made a version with raspberries, but the strawberries were our favorite.

Yossy pairs her galettes with a plume of whipped cream flavored with a splash of rosewater, which is heavenly, and we also like these with a scoop of ice cream. We brought three of these to our upstairs neighbors and their seven-year-old daughter, and within moments they sent the following: “Wow, that went fast. We had to restrain ourselves and save one for Mila’s breakfast.” Then Mila asked for the recipe.

I’ve made three batches of these in the last week, and along the way I’ve jotted down some extra tips and tricks to working with galettes:

• Have a ruler handy to measure the dough rounds. If you roll them too thin, they won’t have enough thickness to hold in the juices from the fruit. Too thick, and they’ll be difficult to shape.
• A 6″ plate or bowl makes a handy template for trimming the dough into even rounds. Just place it, top down, on the dough round and use a pizza wheel to trim away the excess dough.
• Wait until the last minute to add the sugar mixture to the fruit mixture. The sugar draws out the juices in the berries, and when you spoon the juicy fruit onto the galettes, it will want to run all over the place. So have everything else ready to go – egg wash, oven temp, chilled dough rounds, parchment-lined baking sheets – before you toss the fruit with the sugar.
• Hold back some of the fruit to tuck into the galettes after you shape them.
• Keep your dough cool, but not too cold. You want the butter to stay firm – it’s the steam rising from distinct layers of butter that gives it flaky layers. But too cold, and the dough will crack when you fold it up around the fruit. Cracking means more room for all those glorious juices to run out onto the pan, where they will burn and cement the galette to the parchment paper, neither of which we want. So take care to let your dough rounds soften enough to become pliable, then work quickly to keep them cool.
• When pleating round galettes like these, they’ll look tidiest if the pleats all go in the same direction. But it’s more important to work quickly to keep the butter in the dough cool.
• Remove the galettes from the baking sheets onto a cooling rack as soon as they come out of the oven; any drippy juices that have caramelized on the pan will cause the parchment paper to stick as they cool, and that is super annoying.

As much as I love pie, galettes have a few advantages over a full-sized pie. First, they’re smaller and more portable, easy to wrap up and take on a picnic or to a party. Secondly, they have a higher crust-to-fruit ratio for you crust lovers out there. And third, you don’t have to wait as long for them to cool. Cut into a still-warm pie, and you’ll find yourself swimming in fruit soup. But galettes cool within minutes meaning pie in your face sooner.

With a scoop of ice cream melting over the top, a bite of these warm galettes is as transcendent as a thousand angels singing in a church with really amazing acoustics. (Or maybe that’s just my Pandora station…) I imagine they would be just as delicious made with apricots, peaches, or plums.

Yossy’s innovative flavor combinations and classic pastries make me want to run to the kitchen to make each and every recipe from her book. Some of the ones at the top of my list are:

• Rangpur Lime Bars with Saffron
• Caramel-Swirled Roasted Squash Ice Cream
• Pear Pie with Crème Fraîche Caramel
• Plum Pie with Hazelnut Crumb
• Black Fruit Tart in a Buckwheat Crust
• Apricot and Berry Galette with Saffron Sugar
• Cherry and Rhubarb Slab Pie
• Lemon Verbena Olive Oil Cake

And I’ve been experimenting with an alternative flour version of her Brown Butter Date Blondies that we ate way too many of this past week and still want mooooooore…

I hope you become as obsessed with these galettes as we have this spring! If you make these, show me by taking a photo for Instragram and tagging @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.

Reveling in rhubarb:

• Rustic Rhubarb Almond Honey Tart {gluten-free}
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble {gluten-free}
• Rhubarb Bourbon Brown Butter Tart

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Strawberry Rhubarb Rose Galettes {gluten-free}

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Adapted from Sweeter Off the Vine: Fruit Desserts for Every Season, by Yossi Arefi. We find this amount of rosewater to be just right, but if you're sensitive to the flavor, reduce the amount to 2 or 3 teaspoons. I use a 1 1/2 times batch of my flaky, gluten-free pie dough to make 9 galettes. See the original post for step-by-step photos of the fraisage and turning process. Feel free to use your favorite pie dough recipe in its place, or use 3/4 of this recipe if gluten isn't an issue. You'll need enough dough for 1 1/2, 9" single crust pies.

Servings: 9 servings

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 ⁄4 cup plus 2 tbsp (90 ml) ice water, more as needed
• 1 ⁄4 cup plus 2 tbsp (90 ml) well-shaken buttermilk
• 3 ⁄4 cup (110 g) sweet white rice flour
• 1 ⁄2 cup (55 g) GF oat flour, plus extra for rolling the dough
• 1 ⁄4 cup plus 2 tbsp (50 g) millet flour
• 1 ⁄4 cup plus 2 tbsp (45 g) cornstarch
• 3 tbsp (25 g) tapioca flour
• 4 tbsp (25 g) finely ground white chia seed
• 11 ⁄2 tbsp (20 g) organic granulated cane sugar
• 3 ⁄4 tsp fine sea salt
• 12 tbsp (170 g) cold, unsalted butter (preferably European style such as Straus Family Creamery), sliced 1⁄4" (6 mm) thick

Filling:

• 3/4 cup (150 g) organic granulated cane sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
• zest of 1 medium lemon
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (12 g) cornstarch
• big pinch fine sea salt
• 12 ounces (340 g) rhubarb, trimmed, sliced 1/4" thick on the diagonal (scant 3 cups)
• 12 ounces (340 g) strawberries, stemmed, halved or quartered (scant 3 cups)
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (20 ml) rosewater
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice
• 1 egg, beaten well, for egg wash
• coarse sugar such as demerara or turbinado, for sprinkling (or more organic granulated sugar)
• vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions

Make the crust:

• Combine the ice water and buttermilk in a measuring pitcher and chill until needed. In a large bowl, combine the sweet rice, oat, and millet flours with the cornstarch, tapioca flour, ground chia seed, sugar, and salt. Scatter the butter pieces over the top, and work in with a pastry blender or your fingertips until the mixture resembles gravel, with lots of butter chunks the size of peas and almonds.
• Drizzle the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing the dough with a flexible silicone spatula to moisten evenly. Add just enough water for the dough to hold together when you give it a squeeze, and add it directly to the dry floury bits that like to hang out on the bottom of the bowl; you may not need all of the mixture, or you may need to add more ice water.
• At this point you can do one of two things:
• -Knead the dough in the bowl 10-20 times to bring it together.
• -Dump the dough out onto the counter and fraisage by dragging portions of the dough across the counter with the heel of your hand (this makes for a flakier dough).
• Either way, gather the dough up into a ball (a metal bench scraper helps if using the fraisage method) wrap it loosely in plastic wrap, and flatten it into a disk. Chill the dough 30 minutes.
• Optionally, for extra flake, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, dusting on top and underneath the dough as you work to prevent sticking, until it is a scant 1/4" thick; the dimensions don't matter. Fold the dough into thirds like you're folding a letter, then fold again into thirds. The dough may crack, and this is ok. Wrap the dough and chill until cold, at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day.
• On a lightly floured surface, press and roll the dough into a square, then cut the square in thirds both ways to make 9 squares. Roll each square into a circle 6" in diameter and 1/8" thick. Use a pizza wheel to trim the dough into an even round, and stack the rounds on a plate, dusted with a bit of flour to prevent sticking. Chill until cold, 30 minutes, or wrap and chill up to 1 day.
• Position racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 425ºF. Line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

Make the filling:

• Place the sugar in a medium bowl. Add the vanilla seeds and lemon zest and rub with your fingertips until the sugar is moistened. Whisk in the cornstarch and salt. In a large bowl, combine the prepared rhubarb and strawberries and toss with the rosewater and lemon juice.
• Lay the dough rounds on the prepared baking sheets and let stand for a few minutes to soften a bit. Have the egg wash and coarse sugar standing by. Working quickly so the fruit doesn't lose too much juice, toss the fruit mixture with the sugar mixture to coat. Divide the mixture among the dough rounds, mounding it in the center and leaving 1" on all sides; you may not need all the fruit at this point. Fold up the edge of each dough round around the fruit, leaving a 2" window in the center and pleating the dough as you go, and press down to flatten slightly. Tuck in some of the extra fruit, and spoon over any juices left in the bowl. Brush the edges of the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar.
• Bake the galettes until the dough is golden and crisp and the fruit is bubbling, rotating the pans top to bottom and front to back halfway through, 30-35 minutes total. While still hot, remove the galettes from the baking sheet to a cooling rack. Let cool to warm, then serve with whipped cream or ice cream, if you like.
• The galettes are best the day of baking but extras will keep at room temperature for up to 1 day or refrigerated airtight for up to 3 days. Reheat before serving for best results.

Making this? I'd love to see!Tag your snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet!