This berry galette is as delicious as berry pie, but takes half the time and effort. This easy yet impressive dessert is complete with a thick and flavorful homemade crust made with tangy buttermilk and cornmeal, and, of course, a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Galette! Pie’s very unassuming and carefree little sis.
Galette is the dessert I suggest to nearly any beginner baker, especially those nervous about making pie crust from scratch. Because, great news! It’s simply free-form pie. Just as delicious and awesome as pie, but there’s no weaving, crimping, trimming, or any of that meticulous business. The baking and cooling times are both much shorter than a traditional blueberry pie or triple berry pie. You can make mini fruit galettes, too!
Berry galette is a perfect stepping-stone recipe for baking beginners who are feeling a bit pie-shy. 😉
Back in 2016 when I was testing this recipe, I played around with a buttermilk cornmeal pie crust. The result doesn’t necessarily taste like cornbread, but it has many of the same ingredients including fine cornmeal, buttermilk, flour, and butter. This particular crust crisps up beautifully, has a little crunch from the cornmeal, and when paired with juicy, sweet, and warm berries? It’s absolute heaven. Think of it as a flavorful upgrade from regular pie crust; I love it with quiche and use the same crust for my lemony blueberry galette.
For the crust, you can make the dough at least 1 hour and up to a couple days ahead of time; it must chill in the refrigerator before you shape it. And by “shaping” I mean that in the most casual sense ever. Because galette is not picky. Whatever shape the dough rolls out to be, you can leave it.
One thing to keep in mind, though—unlike pies where you can pile the fillings sky-high, galettes don’t really like it when there’s too much filling. The crust can’t bake through properly and will stay mushy, flimsy, and blah. (Technical terms here.) To avoid that nonsense, keep this in mind: flat and compact. Flatten that filling down, compact the fruit as much as you can, and leave a 2- to 3-inch border so you can fold the dough edges over.
Before baking, brush the crust with egg wash (egg + milk) and sprinkle with coarse sugar. These are my 2 main finishes for nearly all sweet pies. The egg wash leaves a golden sheen on the dough as it bakes, and helps the crust to brown evenly. The coarse sugar is for… well… a sweet sparkly finish. Plus the most wonderful slight crunch.
When berry season is over, be sure to try my always-beloved apple galette or this deeply flavored ginger pear galette—both are fall favorites.
As low maintenance as it is, the one thing that berry galette demands is a big fat scoop of vanilla ice cream. Melty ice cream, warm berry filling, buttery crisp cornmeal crust… I think we are all very happy to oblige!
As delicious and impressive as mixed berry pie, but requires half the work! This berry galette is an easy summer dessert and truly shines with a crisp and flaky buttermilk cornmeal crust. A must-try!
