Crostata and Galette Rustic Tart Pastries

Mixed Berry Crostata with Pasta Frolla

by Cat, Aug 2011 (photos right and below, by Cat)

Includes: 1. Galette Pastry; 2. Crostata Pastry

See also: 1. Pastry Sucrée (French Rich Short Crust; 2. Pasta Frolla (Italian Rich Short Crust); 3. Pastry Brisée (Short or Crumb Crust); 4. Standard American Pie Crust (Wheat or Spelt); 5. Wheat/Spelt Yogurt Pie Crust

Tart pastry differ from a regular pie crust in that they (generally) use egg (or egg yolk) rather than water, and while they can be rolled to make rustic pastry, they are more usually pressed into the tart pan.

I was inspired to give these a try when I got some fresh blueberries from a friend’s orchard in Yellow Bay, and wanted to make small rustic tarts I could include in my lunch basket. In past times, I just used the Standard American Pie Crust for tarts, but wanted to try something more rich and rustic.

The French rustic tart is called Gallete, and you can either use the Gallete Pastry recipe below, or Pastry Sucrée (French Rich Short Crust). The Italian version is called Crostata, and I recommend the Pasta Frolla (Italian Rich Short Crust), rather than the Crostata Pastry recipe (which I believe is less authentic by being Americanized).

Galette Pastry

Huckleberry Galette

The tart pictured right (photo by Cat) was made for my friend Jean, using huckleberries she picked, as a thankyou for sharing her huckleberries with me.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe from Fine Cooking.com (1), originally by Tony Rosenfeld. Like the crostata, a galette is a rustic tart. This crust is very similar the French pastry sucrée, a sweet short crust.  My version has more whole spelt than white spelt, but you can reverse these if you want a whiter crust. Barley flour is a good substitute for cake flour (which was in the original recipe), but you could just use more spelt.

This recipe is written for spelt flour; if you choose to use wheat flour, you will need more milk (or yogurt water).

To improve the nutritional value of the pastry, cover dough and let rest on counter overnight (at least 12 hours) for a more healthful soaked flour version.

Makes one 9″ rustic Tart; 1 ½ recipes will make one 12″ rustic Tart, or two smaller tarts.

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 1 cup whole spelt flour (or ¾ cup whole spelt flour and ¼ cup whole barley flour)
• ½ cup white spelt flour
• 1 Tbsp Rapadura or white sugar
• ½ tsp Unrefined sea salt
• 11 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 cube + 3 Tbsp)
• 1 large whole egg yolk
• 3 Tbsp whole milk (or 1 Tbsp plain yogurt +2 Tbsp warm water, if soaking overnight)
• small and medium bowls
• pastry cutter or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment

1 ½ Recipes:

• 1 ½ cup whole spelt flour (or 1 cup whole spelt flour and ½ cup whole barley flour)
• ¾ cup white spelt flour
• 1 ½ Tbsp Rapadura or white sugar
• ¾ tsp Unrefined sea salt
• 2 cubes butter (16 Tbsp)+ ½ Tbsp butter
• 1 large egg

Method:

1. Combine flours, sugar and salt in bowl.  Cut butter into pieces, then cut into flour mixture. Or use a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, at low speed, until there are no lumps of butter larger than the size of peas.
2. In small bowl, beat with milk (or yogurt-water mixture), and add to dough. Mix just until dough comes together. Dough will be somewhat soft. If using wheat flour, add more water or yogurt as needed, 1 Tbsp at a time, while mixing.
3. If not presoaking: Press dough into flat disk, wrap in waxed paper, and let rest in fridge for 15-20 minutes before rolling.
4. If presoaking: form dough into ball, cover with waxed paper and let rest on counter overnight. In morning, press into flat disk, re-wrap and chill in fridge 15 minutes before rolling.

Crostata Pastry

This recipe is adapted is an Americanized version of the Italian classic, from the Daily Inter Lake, May 27, 2009 edition (originally from the May 20th edition of the Los Angeles Times (2)). It replaces the more traditional egg with water. Makes 1 large (12”) or two small (7”) tarts to serve 6 or more.

The original recipe used a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour; I prefer to use whole spelt and barley flours.  The later is a good substitute for cake flour.  I also prefer to use stevia, rather than sugar.

As mentioned before, I prefer to use the more authentic Pasta Frolla (Italian Rich Short Crust).

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 1 ¾ cup cup whole grain flour
• ½ cup unbleached white flour
• 3 Tbsp Rapadura sugar or, ⅛ tsp stevia extract powder
• dash Unrefined sea salt
• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) + 1 Tbsp cold butter
• 3-4 2 Tbsp ice water
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• medium bowl
• pastry cutter or fork

Method:

1. Combine flours, sugar (or stevia) and salt in bowl.  Cut butter into pieces, then cut into flour mixture, until the texture of moist cornmeal.
2. Combine ice water & vanilla extract; sprinkle over top of dough.  Mix in until dough comes together and pulls cleanly away from sides of bowl.  Remove from bowl, wrap in waxed paper; refrigerate.

Testing:  See also Mixed Berry Crostata.  Adjustment to water amount is per testing with spelt, which needs less water than wheat. If you use wheat, increase initial water by 1 Tbsp, then add more if needed.  My spelt American pie crust recipe calls for 4 – 7 Tbsp for slightly less flour and butter than this recipe. Also increased butter by 1 Tbsp. Changes in red indicate amounts per testing.

This pastry is a bit hard to use as it tended to fall apart when rolling, and then tear when folding the edges over the filling. Increasing the water as in the adjusted recipe above helped; also using a pie tin larger than desired finished size made it easier to fold the dough over the fruit around the edge, and helped contain the fruit juices while baking. However, when I switched to using Pasta Frolla, I had much better luck.

References:

1. Fine Cooking.com galette recipe: finecooking.com/recipes/peach-blueberry-galette.aspx
2. LA Times recipe: latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-calcook20recb-2009may20,0,4717590.story
3. italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0253.htm