Rustic Blackberry Pie aka Galette

Something bad happened on the way to last night's stellar celebration of all that's wonderful about the Pacific Northwest. A favorite kitchen workhorse bit the dust. The one most dependable piece of kitchen equipment I've owned and treasured since 1981 finally gave in and croaked...my treasured Cuisinart; however, before the plastic workbowl crumbled it produced the pastry for last night's freeform sweet treat also known as a galette. My Cuisinart's last gasp was a darn good one!

Another fabulous Ina Garten pastry recipe, I took the liberty of adding some sugar to this one. Very easy to make and virtually fool proof (thank goodness because this fool hasn't had a lot of luck with pastry in the recent past) it's topped with couple of pints of plump juicy Marionberries tossed with a mere half cup of sugar, 2 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch and a pinch of salt. Piled into the middle of the pastry, the edges are simply folded in on the filling, and the rustic tart hit a hot oven for 45 minutes and came out looking like this! 

Now while most people would consider serving a slice topped with vanilla ice cream, as you may or may not know Big Guy's a purist when it comes to his pie. Coupled with the fact our freezer is bare of the frozen confection, we had our pie unadorned except for a wee dram of cognac on the side. Uh yum!

Rustic Blackberry Galette from JBug’s Kitchen Antics with pastry adapted from Ina Garten

Pastry:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 pound cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening

2/3 cup ice water (more or less as needed)

Place flour, salt, baking powder and sugar into bowl of food processor and pulse to combine. Add cold butter and vegetable shortening. Stir quickly with a fork to coat each piece with flour, then cover and pulse briefly until fats are incorporated and about the size of peas. With the motor running, drizzle in water until dough leaves the sides of the work bowl and just comes together. Place into a zip bag and knead to form a ball. Flatten ball, then refrigerate a minimum of 30 minutes.

Filling:

2 pints fresh blackberries (I used Marionberries)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Dash salt

2 tablespoons cornstarch (heaping)

Mix together sugar, salt and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Toss in fresh blackberries and fold carefully to incorporate.

To assemble the pie, preheat oven to 425. On a floured board, roll pastry out to a large circle – approximately 16 inches in diameter. Fold pastry into quarters then even edges out by cutting into a relatively even disc. Place pastry on a large pizza pan and unfold allowing edges to drape over sides of pan. Place blackberry filling in a pike in center of pastry then fold edges in to roughly cover the filling, leaving the center exposed. Sprinkle tart lightly with a tablespoon of granulated sugar.

Place into preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes or until filling runs clear and pastry is browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm. 

A year ago - Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese 

Two year's ago - Stuffed Anaheim Peppers, Italian Style

Comments

[Lea M. Callais]

I just had a moment of silence for the Cuisinart... that is so sad. How many appliances from other companies last that long? NONE I love mine, and it is only a few years old...

Now, about that galette - if your baby was going to go out - at least it went out with a bang!!! Beautiful as can be!

[June]

Lea - amazing that it lasted as long as it did and the bowl just fell apart, but the motor was still purring along. Hope the new one I ordered is as dependable as the old one was.
As for the galette - the pastry is super and the filling kinda' tart/sweet. A real keeper.

[Lorraine]

We do berries really well in the northwest that is for sure. Love Ina! Suprised you didn't put some cognac in the dish too :)

[June]

The berries here are amazing. This was the pastry Ina uses for her pot pies and it worked great. A little sturdier than the usual and it held up really well with all the juice in the blackberries. I'd make this again in a heartbeat and you know who agrees.