All Time Favourite Nectarine Galette

Peaches, plums, apricot, cherries and nectarines are in abundance and by late September, all these fruits would have been sun-kissed throughout the summer months! What you get in the markets are ripe, juicy and sweet stone fruits perfect to munch on their own, or to turn into jams or ice creams! I love making a good ‘ol crumble with stone fruits. But a nectarine galette is such a treat and the idea of rolling a butter-rich dough FREESTYLE, without the use of any cutters or rulers (like we do in a professional kitchen) and decorating with ripe nectarines is just too enticing! Here is the recipe for a simple and rustic Nectarine Galette!

Now, what is a galette? Well, to me they are a treasured dessert in the pie/tart/crumble category that can comprises of different elements. You have the all-important crust, the fruit topping and sometimes you can include a cheeky addition – I will be lining my crust with a layer of fragrant almond cream or frangipane as they call it in French. Oooh la la…! It’s the same filling you get in an Almond Croissant so it’s sweet and fragrant and works beautifully with stone fruits. 

Now, the frangipane is optional, you don’t have to have almond cream in your galette but since I love almonds, I couldn’t help but make a small batch for this galette. Leftovers go on my cinnamon bread and toasted till perfection! 😉

Now, let’s start making!

Frangipane

Starting off with the frangipane. I’ve added some orange zest and vanilla paste to mine but if you have almond essence, feel free to add that as well for a dose of sweet almond fragrance. A quick history lesson, frangipane was inspired by an Italian maquis that invented a bitter almond scented perfume that was meant to be used for gloves. It was so popular that the French pastry chefs took it as inspiration to incorporate the scent into a pastry cream, which resulted in the frangipane! 

So usually an imitation almond extract or essence is used for frangipane. The sweet almonds that we consume do not actually give that distinct floral and sweet aroma that we get from say, marzipan or the Italian biscottis. That gorgeous fragrance is actually from bitter almonds. Now, bitter almonds look pretty similar to the regular almonds we consume, though they are a little smaller and pointier. The problem with bitter almonds is that they can be toxic when consumed in large quantities. Bitter almonds contain traces of prussic acid which is basically hydrogen cyanide and H2O. Eventhough you need to consume A LOT to be poisoned, I’d still steer clear and say, NO THANK YOU! 

There are amazing artifical almond flavours out there, find your favourite and use them instead. 

You can use blanched or unblanched almonds Blanced almonds have had their skin removed. I;ve some unbalanced almonds with me so that’s what I’ve used here. I also love the specks of brown.

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar into the bowl and beat together using a hand-held mixer over medium speed until creamy.

Once you’ve reached the right consistency, over low speed, add the ground almond alternating with the eggs until the ingredients are incorporated evenly. Add in the flour to combine, followed by vanilla paste (or imitation almond essence) and orange zest! That’s it! Cling wrap and place in the fridge as you proceed to the next element of the galette, the pastry dough!

Pastry Dough

Galette dough is simple and really easy to make. All you need is flour, COLD butter and a dash of ICE water. You’re probably thinking why have I paid extra attention to certain words. Well, when making pastry dough, you want to keep your ingredients as cold as possible. Doing this helps to create pockets of fats – butter 🧈 while in the oven which yields a flakier crust. 

I’d recommend making this in a food processor – that has blades which helps to cut and eventually mixes and combines all the ingredients together, without meltingor breaking down the butter to paste. 

In the food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt and add all the pieces of butter and pulse till it reaches a very sandy consistency. Drizzle in the ice cold water and pulse, until a dough starts to form. Be careful not to add too much water or overmix the dough. The dough should start to come  together but also slightly crumbly. That’s when you stop.

Place a large parchment paper on your counter work surface and blop the dough onto it. Knead it together to combine into a ball. Flatten the dough slightly and take another parchment paper and place it ontop of the flattened dough. Roll out using a rolling pin till you get a rough large circle or about 5mm thickness. Chill the crust in the fridge for at least  ½ an hour. 

Now, while the dough chills, 😎You can pre-heat the oven to 180°C and we can move on to preparing the fruits!

Fruits

For this recipe we’ll be using juicy sweet nectarines which I just got from the supermarket. Simply halve the nectarines and remove pits. Slice each half lengthwise into 1cm-2cm slices and lay them flat onto a chopping board or flat plate.

And I love LOVE loveee making this recipe just because you can easily replace the fruit with any fruit of your choice. If blueberries are in season, just simply toss them in some cornstarch so that the juices set in nice and thick as they ooze out when baking. If you have apples on hand (I prefer green apples in my galette), just peel and core and cut them similarly to the nectarines. 

Now, time to finally assemble the GALETTE!

Take both the frangipane and crust out of the fridge. Start by putting dollops of frangipane on the center of the crust and spread it evenly out, leaving about a 6cm border. Now, carefully using a flat spatula, from the bottom, slide to pick up the nectarines and place them gently onto over the frangipane in a decorative pattern of your choice!

Maybe you found that your crust has stuck to the parchment paper underneath, but fret not! I have a trick up my sleeve that’s 99.99% risk-free!  Using a small offset spatula, slide it below the crust and slowly lift it up from the parchment paper and fold it inwards. Continue to do this until all the excess crust has been folded.

Brush the edges and the fruits with melted butter and here comes my favurite part: sprinkle with sugar!

Another trick up my sleeve is to use the oven tray, you know the large, usually grey tray, that comes with your home oven? So take that tray and turn that UPSIDE-DOWN. Simpy drag the parchment paper with the galette onto the grey tray. Bake for about 45 mins until golden! 

At the 40 minutes mark of baking, mix apricot preserves with water and gently heat together in a microwave safe bowl. 

Once the timer goes off, remove the galatte from the oven and brush with the apricot preserves for it to glow and shine! Leave it to cool for about 15 minutes. I know it’s very tempting but you want to let the galette cool and not fall apart if you try to cut it while it’s still hot.

Cut a slice and enjoy warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream! Just delicious!