Nectarine and Frangipane Galette

A galette is a French pastry. It has three different forms: the Galette des Rois (puff pastry and frangipane cake), the Galette Bretonne or Breton (a savory tart), and a fruit galette (pie crust with fruit in the middle). This recipe is for the fruit galette, but each is meant to be unfussy, free-form, and relatively rustic.

This nectarine and frangipane galette works well with most drupe or “stone” fruits. The pit or “stone” that contains the seed in the middle of the fruit is what gives these fruits their name.

Some great stone fruit substitution options for nectarines are apricots, plums, peaches, mangoes, and cherries. Their flesh will stand up the heat of the oven and won’t lose shape in the way that berries, like blueberries strawberries might.

That’s not to say that berries aren’t good options, just that you will need less of those fruits or you’ll end up with a soupy galette on your hands.

If you do not have a food processor, you can make pie crust by hand. Mix the dry ingredients into a wide, shallow bowl. Then add in the butter and shortening. Use a fork or pastry cutter to break the butter and shortening bits apart. when you have pea sized pieces, start introducing the almond extract and ice water.

Your butter pieces will be bigger when you make pie crust by hand, so expect larger flakes and crispier crust. But it can be really nice to go by feel. It doesn’t happen a lot in baking. Enjoy getting messy.

00 flour is perfect for pie crust, for these reasons:

1. The 00 refers to how finely ground the flour is which ranges from 00 to 2. 00 flour is the finest level of ground flour and is typically made from durum wheat. Durum has great structure but less elasticity than their red wheat counterparts (all-purpose flours). Simply put, doughs with 00 flour hydrate faster and are less chewy from the softer wheat it’s made from. This makes it ideal for the tender and lighter textured pie crust we are after. But that’s not everything you need to know.

2. Let’s talk protein… Most 00 pizza flours have a higher amount of protein (12-13%). However, the King Arthur 00 Flour, which is what is stocked at my local grocery store, has 10.5%. I found that sticking to a protein content under 11% creates more tender crust and less gluten development. If you do not have access to King Arthur 00 Flour any will do. Even with a protein content in range with AP flour, the soft wheat and fine milling will still make better pie crust.

If you don’t want to purchase or can’t find 00 flour here are some other substitutions:

1. AP Flour + Cake or Pastry Flour: This feels like the opposite of easy since you’d need to purchase cake flour. But if you already have some and don’t want to buy 00 flour, this is a good substitute. Cake and Pastry flour typically have a protein content between 8-9%, while AP flour is between 10.5-12%. The lower the protein in flour, the less gluten development, and the more tender your crust will be.

Of Note: There is a fine line here. The less protein your flour and the resulting dough have, the more delicate and difficult it will be to work with before an after baking.

2. Specifically White Lily AP flour: If you can get it, White Lily All-Purpose Flour has a protein content of around 9% and it’s milled from soft winter wheat. All the good things I just reviewed in the above FAQ. I don’t have direct access to it where I live. But if you work with pie crust often and haven’t tried it, I suggest you give this AP flour a try!

3. Only AP Flour: This will result in a less tender crust, but there’s a reason this flour is labeled “all purpose”. All purpose flour works pretty universally in all bakes. It’s the fussy people like me that start branching out into all the other options. Your galette will stil be delicious. I promise.

Yes, you can make an all-butter pie crust and 86 the shortening all-together.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you decide not the use shortnening at all. Shortening has no water content, unlike butter which is 80% fat and 20% water, which creates a flakier, softer pie crust. So, if you want to use only butter and not the combination of butter and shortening, the resulting crust will have a crisper, more cracker-like texture and a more buttery flavor. It will also brown a bit quicker and to a deeper color. Definitely still a delicious option.

Of Note: Butter is denser than shortening so use 2.5tbsp (35g) of butter in place of the 3 tbsp (35g) of shortening. Anyone else seeing a pattern here for why measuring by weight is easier than measuring by volume? Honestly how do we not always cook with metric?!?

Frangipane is an almond pastry cream that is used to fill all kinds of French desserts. It whips up into a thick custard consistency and then bakes into a dense cake-like texture. It’s great to add as a filling or layer in not just this stone fruit galette recipe. You can also tuck some into warm croissants and top them with powdered sugar. Or consider layering it onto fresh baked cream scones. YUM!

If you want to reheat your nectarine and frangipane galette or any fruit galette for that matter, just warm it through in the microwave in 15-30 second increments. Make sure the microwave is on a low setting (bread, pizza or between 10%-30% power). All baked goods will harden and turn really chewy when over cooked in the microwave.

Or put a slice or two in the oven to bake at 300°F (149°C) for 10 minutes (if it’s coming from the refrigerator) and 20 minutes (If it’s coming from the freezer).

I don’t use corn starch in this recipe for 2 reasons:
1. Nectarines and Peaches don’t break down and produce a lot of liquid the way berries do. So, a thickener, like cornstarch, isn’t a necessary ingredient to setting the filling.
2. The frangipane (almond cream) absorbs moisture as it cooks. So a lot of the liquid from the fruit ends up there.

You’re in luck! Because there is no leavener in this recipe (e.g. baking soda or baking powder) the only changes are the temperature of the oven and the time the galette bakes.

High altitudes, above 3,500ft (1,067m) have a lower boiling point, which means food browns faster. To combat this, take on a low-and-slow approach to baking the nectarine galette. Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C). and the drop the temperature to 400°F (204°C) about 3 minutes after the pie goes in the oven. Then, bake to between 40-50 minutes. Depending on your oven and your elevation, the pie might cook a little faster or slower, but that range should do you good.

When the nectarine and frangipane galette is done the frangipane (almond cream) should have puffed up around the nectarine slices and browned a bit. The pie crust should be solid to any prodding and the bottom of your pie should be nice and dry and crisp. If it’s not, return it to the oven for a few more minutes at a time until it’s cooked to perfection.

If the crust starts browning more than you’d like, cover the fruit galette with aluminum foil, to protect it from direct heat.

I like to move my nectarine and frangipane galettes to a similarly sized cutting board or plate and cover it with cling film once it has fully cooled.

If kept refrigerated, it will last just fine for 4-5 days. I don’t really recommend freezing a galette before baking, for textural purposes, but you can freeze the whole thing right after it fully cools. Keep the crisp frozen for up to 2 months.

Why wait until “fully cooled”? Any moisture under the plastic wrap or in your tupperware will soften the pie crust, and we don’t want that.