Blueberry Galette

The Recipe: A relaxed and rustic blueberry pie, so easy to throw together, just a pie crust, frozen blueberries and some pantry ingredients.

The Conversation: With a pie this easy, no more "pie in the sky".

Blueberry galette is a fancy-dancy signature for a most plebian pie.

Can you say gaw-LETT? While the name implies hours of trouble and fuss, the results are as relaxed as that ever-so-comfortable chair you’d no more give up than your kids.

My mother would have loved this recipe, my father, too.

My dad, you see, was and remains a fiend for pie. One of the many little inside jokes he and my mom shared went like this. He'd ask, with a hopeful grin, "What’s for dessert?" And she’d answer, with a rueful smile, "Pie in the sky."

The translation? "Sorry, dear. No dessert tonight."

For my mom, cooking was a sort of witchcraft, a way to pamper the taste buds and handle a husband. (Yes, she really was of that era. But really, aren't we all, still? I call it love.)

But if pie were always this easy, I bet that she’d have waved her rolling pin, I mean her wand, to make him real pie – no more pie in the sky – whenever he asked.

NOT RECOMMENDED: TRADER JOE'S FROZEN PIE CRUSTS To love the rustic nature of a galette is to embrace its casual messiness, spills and all.

That said? This Blueberry Galette was made with a Trader Joe's frozen pie crust and needless to say, I don't recommend them. Even after thawing on the counter for the prescribed 90 minutes, the crusts tear into pieces. It's not too hard to reconstruct the crust, just keep the crust between the two pieces of plastic it's wrapped in and use a rolling pin to roll the pieces back together.

I've had Trader Joe's pie crust tear like this twice now. The first time, I blamed it on having been in the freezer too long before using the crust. This time, I bought and baked the crust on the same day. It still fell apart! Product fail, people!

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BLUEBERRY GALETTE

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time-to-table: 1 hour
Serves 8

CRUST
• 1 unbaked refrigerated pie crust, preferably Pillsbury

BLUEBERRIES
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1 12- or 16-ounce bag frozen blueberries, still frozen
• Zest and juice (about 2 tablespoons) from 1 lemon (don’t skip the lemon!)

TO FINISH
• 1 tablespoon butter, in tiny pieces
• Egg wash, (1 egg lightly beaten with a tablespoon of water)
• Sugar, preferably demerara (raw) sugar

PLAN AHEAD! I use Pillsbury refrigerated crusts, they need only about 15 minutes at room temperature before unfolding. But many people like the convenience of frozen pie crusts, these must thaw for 60 - 90 minutes before unfolding. So much for impromptu convenience, right?

CRUST Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Unfold the crust on the counter, work gently to avoid tearing. With a rolling pin, gently enlarge the crust slightly with a few light swipes from the center to the edge. Transfer the crust onto the parchment.

BLUEBERRIES In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the berries. Sprinkle on the lemon zest and juice, stir in.

TO FINISH Transfer fruit to the crust, mounding it in the center at first, then spread it out to leave about a two-inch border. Spread the butter pieces evenly over the berries. Fold the crust border over the berries, pleating it to form an edge. Lightly brush the exposed crust with the egg wash, then sprinkle sugar over the crust.

BAKE Bake until golden and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Cool slightly, the berries will thicken.

TO SERVE Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream or sour cream loosened with a little buttermilk.

MAKE-AHEAD TIPS This pie tastes best warm from the oven so bake it right before serving. If you like, mix the berries in advance but then return them to the freezer until you're ready to bake the galette.

ALANNA's TIPS
OVERALL Word to the wise, "fresh frozen" is key here. If either your pie crust or your berries are the least bit freezer-burned, baking them won't help. My best advice? Just toss 'em.
CRUST For some reason, this crust sticks to a baking sheet in a way it doesn’t to a pie pan. Parchment is the best defense but if there’s none on hand, try liberally buttering a piece of foil. These days, refrigerated pie crusts are quite good as is but to my taste, are even better when rolled a bit thinner, that's why I suggest rolling the crust out a bit.
BLUEBERRIES Packages of frozen blueberries used to come in 16-ounce (454g) bags but these days are mostly in 12-ounce (340g) bags. This recipe works with either size. If using the smaller amount, do reduce the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt by about 25 percent. I can't for the life of me think why but I think that the larger domestic blueberries work better in this Blueberry Galette than the smaller wild blueberries. No frozen blueberries on hand? berry mix would work great too. I’ve become a real fan of Trader Joe's frozen blue-black-raspberry medley. Or perhaps tonight’s witchery means a peach galette?

NUTRITION INFORMATION
Per Slice: 333 Calories; 16g Tot Fat; 6g Sat Fat; 20mg Cholesterol; 365mg Sodium; 49g Carb; 2g Fiber; 21g Sugar; 2g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 7.5 & PointsPlus 9 & SmartPoints 14

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If You Love Blueberries

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~ more blueberry recipes ~
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