Fresh Pineapple Galette or What to do with a large Pineapple

Looking back over the years …From September 2010 – September 2021

There I was with this large fresh pineapple and no idea what to do with it. I cut it up and stored the pieces in a glass container in the fridge. Pineapple. (It was an impulse buy, which I am rarely prone to do.) What can I do with a pineapple? After some Internet perusing – pineapple pie with meringue, crushed pineapple something, no fresh pineapple recipes, until aha!  Here. I am going to make a fresh pineapple galette. You are thinking, what in heck is a galette? That’s funny, so was I, until I saw Julia Child’s guest chef making one. My chef friend Richard was talking about galettes to me and I was stumped. “It’s like a galette.”  But I chose to nod and look as if I knew what it was. (Oh suuure.)

Galette is a general term used in French to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes.  Wikipedia: retrieved September 15, 2010.

Okay. Blah. Blah. Blah.  Really, it’s dough with either sweet or savory foods in it. Different areas of France use different flour, such as buckwheat. It looks like a pie without the pan because the edges are folded over.

Today, I will be using white flour and the cross my fingers baking technique. This recipe introduces yet another way to make dough. Surfaces are washed and cleaned off, next put on my apron and begin. (Here goes nothin’.)

RECIPE:

Pineapple Galette

www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pineapple-Galette-241523#ixzz0zRMa60qh

From Epicurious – click this link above for more information

yield: Makes 8 servings

active time: 30 min

total time: 2 3/4 hr (includes chilling dough and cooling galette)

For pastry

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Rounded teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

For topping

3 tablespoons semolina (sometimes called semolina flour)

1 (4-pound) fresh pineapple (preferably labeled extra-sweet), peeled, quartered, cored, and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick wedges

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon whole milk

Accompaniment: vanilla ice cream

Oooo. Looks pretty tasty.

Make pastry dough: Blend together flour, salt, sugar, and butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons ice water and gently stir with a fork until incorporated.

Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until just incorporated, then test again. (Don’t overwork, or pastry will be tough.)

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to distribute fat. Gather dough together, with a pastry or bench scraper if you have one, and form into a 6-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.

Make topping and bake galette: Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 15- by 11-inch rectangle and transfer to a large baking sheet. Chill until slightly firm but still flexible, about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle semolina evenly over dough, leaving a 1-inch border all around, then arrange pineapple wedges on dough, overlapping them slightly, in 3 lengthwise rows. Brush pineapple with melted butter. Mix together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over pineapple. Fold border of dough inward over outer edge of pineapple and brush with milk.

Bake galette 30 minutes, then cover loosely with a sheet of foil and bake until filling is bubbling and pastry is golden, 25 to 30 minutes more.

Discard foil and cool galette, uncovered, on baking sheet on a rack 20 minutes, then slide off baking sheet onto rack to cool completely.

Note: I substituted ground tapioca for the semolina, because I don’t have any, as was suggested by another baker who made this recipe.  The pineapple was not extra sweet and I like it that way.

And that, my dear friends, is a fresh pineapple galette. Yum.

Photos above was made with my old camera in 2010, when I started my “Kunstkitchen Blog”.

Here it is years later 2021 and I made another galette with a puff pastry dough. (Store bought!) Definitely faster than the fresh pineapple galette, which I had to carve up and ready for baking. I remember looking up the best way to carve a pineapple.

My dear friend Linda, gave me hint today that she buys pineapples already cored and cleaned of the outer tough skin already removed at her local grocery! Times sure have changed.

Since then this blog gave me the opportunity to learn many cooking techniques. Fresh food and home cooking is the best. Slow cooking is relaxing. Reading recipes has a calming and inspiring influence in my life.

This year’s galette is made with peaches and blueberries. The recipe for Peach and Blueberry Galette is linked here. My add was blueberries and I made my own soft butter with cinnamon to put on top for the lip smackin’ butter flavor that this galette deserves.

Puff Pastry Pineapple Galette © CKatt 9-8-2021

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen.

Have a good week wherever you find yourself.

Peace