A delightfully flaky and crisp pie crust, topped with fresh, juicy peaches – this Easy Peach Galette is simple enough to make for your family in a pinch, and fancy enough for company! Find out how to make the perfect pie crust and filling for this beautiful summer dessert.
Summer doesn’t mean that baking takes a back seat in my house. Not with the bounty of fruits that comes with the season, especially those gorgeous, juicy stone fruits! I love pies and tarts, but sometimes I just can’t be bothered. That’s where these simple, rustic galettes come into the picture! They are so easy to make, and they are freeform – so no special pans required, and anyone can make ’em.
Short of eating them straight out of your hand, galettes in my opinion are the best way to enjoy summer stone fruits. So here I’m going to give you step by step instructions on how to make this Easy Peach Galette! And the best thing is that you can use this galette recipe with pretty much any type of fruit – plums, nectarines, pluots, apricots, apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries etc.
There are only two components to a galette.
- Pie crust – pie crusts are very easy to make. And they are very forgiving, especially when you make them freeform like for this easy galette. It’s completely ok even if it shrinks, and you don’t have to blind bake.
- Filling – pretty much anything goes. I’m making a peach galette here to make the most of the juicy peaches that I got my hands on recently at our local grocery store. You could even make a mixed stone fruit galette instead, and maybe throw some berries in there too!
How to make the pie crust
You can make the pie crust in two different ways – using the food processor OR by hand. Use whichever is easiest for you.
The reason why this pie crust is special is that it’s an all butter pie crust which not only makes is super easy to make, but it’s also incredibly light, flaky and delicious!
Here are the secrets to my perfect pie crust!
- Vinegar – a trick that I learned a few years ago when making dough for pastries (like puff pastry or short crust or pie crusts) is that vinegar is an absolutely necessary ingredient. The addition of the acid makes the dough easier to handle and roll out. But the real benefit is when it’s baked. Because the dough is so light and easy to handle, it’s also delightfully flaky after it’s baked.
- Vodka – Ah! No surprises here. Vodka makes my pie crusts that much better! Water isn’t the best option to use in order to bind the dough because the addition of water also means that the gluten will develop more, making the dough tough. The addition of butter also adds a certain amount of moisture to the dough, so I use vodka to bind the dough while also minimizing the amount of water content that I add. Vodka is flavorless, and doesn’t contribute to hydrating the dough or activating the gluten, making the dough easy to roll out and manageable. And of course, all of the alcohol evaporates when you bake this easy galette, so you don’t have to worry one bit about making this for kids.
- Cold ingredients – make sure everything you use (the four, butter and the liquids) is nice and chilled.
You can use a food processor or a pastry cutter, OR just your hands to make the pie dough.
The key is to make sure that you don’t over-work the flour and develop the gluten too much. The butter should be processed as little as possible so that you have chickpea-sized butter lumps in your flour. These butter lumps with make your pie crust super flaky and buttery.
The filling for this easy peach galette
There’s no pre-cooking involved, so the filling for this summer dessert couldn’t be easier. It’s simply fresh peaches layered on top of the pie dough.
How do you prevent the crust from getting soggy in a galette?
As the fresh peaches cook, they release their juices which can make the pie crust soggy. Some galette recipes call for a filling (such as frangipane) below the fresh fruit layer to prevent soggy pie crusts – but that’s just more work.
Instead, the fresh peaches here tossed gently with some cornstarch (or tapioca flour) and lemon juice (or a generous pinch of citric acid), before being layered over the pie dough. So as the peaches cook and the juices are released, they’ll be thickened by the starch. This makes the peach filling really juicy WITHOUT being too liquidy or soggy in this easy peach galette.
Also, instead of making a syrup to create the glaze on this peach galette, the peaches are topped with some sugar, which will melt with the peach juices and create a beautiful glaze as the galette bakes.
You can slice the peaches for this galette into wedges and arrange them in a circular pattern, OR you can slice the peach halves and form a crisscross grid pattern as shown below that looks really fancy. You can actually get more peaches in your filling with this pattern too!
This easy peach galette is the perfect summer dessert! It’s simple enough to make for your family in a pinch, but also fancy enough for company! The peaches are perfectly cooked with a great balance of sweetness that brings out the fresh, juicy flavor of the peaches. The melted sugar on top makes the peaches taste almost as if they’ve been poached. And the crust is flaky and crisp. Just a dollop of whipped cream or mascarpone, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream – and you’ve got the perfect summer dessert for all occasions! 🙂
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Easy Peach Galette
A flaky and crisp pie crust, topped with fresh, juicy peaches - this Easy Peach Galette is simple enough to make for your family in a pinch, and fancy enough for company!
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 8 oz unsalted butter 2 sticks
- ¼ cup vodka chilled
- 2 tbsp water chilled
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar chilled
- 12.5 oz AP flour 350 g
- 2 tbsp sugar for sweet galettes
- 1 tsp sea salt
Peach Filling
- 6 peaches about 1.25 lbs, cut in half and pitted
- 1 tbsp cornstarch or tapioca flour
- Generous pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup white sugar
Egg Wash
- 1 egg yolk
- 3 tbsp milk
Instructions
Pie Crust
Slice the butter into small pieces (each stick of butter into 16 pieces). Freeze this butter on a plate for about 10 - 15 minutes.
Next, make sure the vodka, water, vinegar and flour are all chilled as well.
- Place the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse to mix the ingredients.
- Add the chilled unsalted butter and pulse a few times, until you have chickpea sized butter pieces mixed in with the dough.
Next, add the vodka and vinegar, and pulse just 3 - 4 times to mix them in. IF the mix is too dry, add the rest of the water. Pulse to mix, until there's no dry flour left. Squeeze a little of the dough in your hands to see if it comes together to form a ball. If it does, then the pie dough is ready. If it still seems dry, add another tbsp of water.
Turn out the dough onto a clean surface and bring the mixture together to form a rough dough disc. Cut the disc into two, and form two flat discs that are about 5 - 6 inches across. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
When you’re ready to make the galette, remove 1 portion of the crust from the fridge and let it soften for a bit (10-20 minutes; the dough should still be cold but malleable).
Peach Filling
Slice each peach half into ¼ inch thick slices, or ¼ inch thick wedges.
Place the peaches in a bowl. Add the lemon juice, vanilla, salt and cornstarch, and gently toss to mix in with the peaches.
Egg Wash
- Make the egg wash while the galette is chilling in the fridge and the oven is preheating. Mix the egg yolk and milk together and set aside.
Galette assembly
Dust your work surface with flour and place the cold (but malleable) pie dough on top. Dust the top of the pie disc with a little flour as well. Roll out the pie disc until you have a rough round-shaped disc that's about 12 inches in diameter. Then gently place this crust on a parchment paper.
Starting from the middle, place the peach slices/wedges on top of the pie dough, leaving a 2 inch border from the edge of the pie crust.
- If you cut the peaches into wedges - you can arrange the peaches in circles (about 2 - 3 circles), with each wedge overlapping another.
- If you sliced the peaches - arrange the peach slices together and create patterns with them starting from the center. Create a crisscross pattern with most of the slices. Use any extra slices to fill in gaps.
Sprinkle the sugar over the peach slices/wedges.
Cut any frayed edges of the pie crust. Then fold over the pie dough borders. Place the galette (along with the parchment paper) on a baking tray.
Refrigerate the galette for about 15 - 20 minutes until it firms up. While the galette is in the fridge, preheat the oven to 400°F.
When the oven is preheated, remove the galette from the fridge, and generously brush the top of the pie dough with the egg wash.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 - 40 minutes, until the crust is a golden brown. Remove the galette from the oven, and gently lift the galette from the parchment paper (be careful as the galette will be a little soft and delicate at this point), and place it on a baking rack to cool. This will help prevent the bottom from getting soggy.
Serve the galette while warm, or at room temperature, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
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