Servings: 6-8
I originally developed this recipe using amaretti — very sweet, very light, very crisp almond meringue cookies. You can often find them in Italian and specialty groceries. Almond biscotti work well, too. Choose plums that are ripe but still a bit firm so they’re easy to slice. My usual plum of choice is the popular Santa Rosa, but red-fleshed plums, such as Elephant Heart, make a dazzling tart. You could also use sliced nectarines or peaches.
Yields 1 galette; serves six to eight
Ingredients
1/3 cup crushed amaretti or almond biscotti (use a food processor or put the cookies in a plastic bag and crush with them a blunt object until they’re the texture of coarse sand)
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
6 ripe plums (about 1 lb.), rinsed and dried
1 disk Sweet Galette Dough (below)
1 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbs. sugar
3 oz. fresh raspberries
2 Tbs. strained raspberry jam (optional)
Adjust an oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 400°F. Combine the crushed amaretti and the flour and set aside.
Sweet Galette Dough
Freeze any unused dough well wrapped in plastic; defrost the frozen dough in the refrigerator for a day before using it.
Yields enough dough for two galettes about 11 inches in diameter.
11-¼ oz. (2-½ cups) all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. sugar
½ tsp. salt (omit if using salted butter)
8 oz. (16 Tbs.) unsalted butter, cut into ½ -inch pieces and chilled
5 oz. (about 2/3 cup) ice water
Directions
Cut each plum in half, remove its pit, and cut the flesh into ¼-inch-thick slices.
Cover a baking sheet, preferably without sides, with kitchen parchment. (If your baking sheet has sides, flip it over and use the back.)
On a lightly floured surface, roll the galette dough into a 15-inch round. Transfer the dough by folding it in half, picking it up, and unfolding it on the lined baking sheet. Sprinkle the crushed amaretti over the dough evenly, leaving a 2-inch border without crumbs. Arrange the plums over the crumbs in concentric circles, overlapping slightly. Lift the edges of the dough and fold them inward over the filling, pleating as you go, to create a folded-over border. Brush the border with the melted butter and sprinkle the entire galette with the sugar. Bake for 30 min. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the raspberries over the plums. Return the galette to the oven and bake until the crust is browned and the fruit is cooked and tender, another 15 min.
Slide the galette off the parchment and onto a cooling rack. Let cool for about 10 min. before slicing. For a shinier filling, brush on the jam before slicing.
Sweet Galette Dough
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the chilled butter using a stand mixer, a food processor, or a pastry blender until the butter is evenly distributed but still in large, visible pieces. Add the ice water all at once to the flour and butter. Mix the dough just until it begins to come together (if using a stand mixer or a food processor, be especially careful not to overmix the dough). Gather the dough with your hands — don’t worry if you see streaks of butter — and shape it into two disks. Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.