Whole Grain Recipe Roundup: Tried and True

Ok, this post is long overdo! It probably should have been posted about this time last year. In fact, it's been partially drafted for almost a year, but I never knew quite where to go with it. Since my 24th birthday has long since come and passed, it's time I talk about it. I was nervous about it. I'd had a not-so-good birthday the year before. Twenty four on the other hand? It turned out to be a really good one. Though my boyfriend was stuck at work in Houston, my parents came to visit me in St. Louis. My friend Ann and I had registered for a wine and paint class, but it got cancelled and we each left with vouchers for two extra free paint classes. I got to eat pizza and my favorite salad from Pi and have ice cream. I got a super awesome cast iron skillet from my super awesome parents. And, I got to open my birthday gift from boyfriend over Skype.

Imagine for a moment, that you're the boyfriend of a home baker who hates roses and loves puns. You came up with a brilliant birthday gift for your cheese-obsessed Wisconsinite (a cheese making kit from Wisconsin). But, you feel like something's missing: a birthday bouquet. She's forbidden you from sending her flowers. What do you get her? Well, you could get her flowers with the roots still attached arguing that plants don't count as flowers. You could get her seeds to grow her own flowers. You could send the flowers anyway hoping that she really wanted them and just told you not to buy them. Or, you could go the Stranger Than Fiction route and, wouldn't you know, come up with the perfect gift! Send flours instead of flowers. (Side note: he's made me watch both Stranger Than Fiction and Chocolat, and I'm fairly certain he's subtly planting hints for my next career change.)

Now, I knew to check my mailbox, expecting flowers. Instead, I found a big rectangular box that weighed about 30 pounds. When I opened it, I found a postcard with this note "They're not roses, but who doesn't love flours for their birthday?" Under the card were two more boxes, each full of little bags of flour! Every bag was a different flour: blue cornmeal, yellow cornmeal, brown rice flour, barley flour, buckwheat flour, millet flour, oat flour, rye flour, and spelt flour. The idea was that the flours would challenge me to be creative in the kitchen and try new recipes.

One year later, I've only finished 2 bags of flour: rye and barley. I was very pleased with both and found that they were great to use in baked goods for flavor and moisture. I've even purchased more barley and rye flour in the bulk section at Whole Foods. The buckwheat flour has about 1/2 a crepe recipe-worth left in the bag. I've used a little oat flour, millet flour, spelt flour, and blue cornmeal. C always brings up the spelt flour thinking that it's getting neglected (it hasn't been neglected, it's just the biggest, most colorful bag). I've hardly touched the brown rice flour because it's very tricky to use without xanthan gum, which I prefer to omit. I was also having a hard time using the oat flour, but I think I've finally discovered that the key is using it in cookies. The yellow corn flour has yet to be opened--but I blame C for buying "masa harina," not realizing we already had the English version.

Some of my creativity got the better of me and there were a few real flops. On the flip side, I found a few truly great recipes that I never would have tried before C's challenge. Others were fun to experiment with and lead to yummy treats. Those are the recipes I'll share with you today.

Barley Flour:
Banana Muffin Tops with Steel-Cut Oats from The Kitchn
Prepared as muffins. Subbed cinnamon for the nutmeg. Go buy bananas right now. Make these as soon as they are ripe. Feel free to stir in up to 1 cup of shredded veges (zucchini, beets, and/or carrots). Make these now, thank me later.

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes from Food52
Used Barley flour for the whole wheat flour and divided the all-purpose into 50:50 all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flours. Used only 1.5 tbsp. butter, added an egg, and used 3/4 cup buttermilk. Thinned to the right consistency with milk before cooking.

Buttermilk Barley Bread from Food52
Made as stated in the recipe. The bread was very soft and perfect for sandwiches. I did not like it as toast because it was a little too moist/dense to get crispy. I was a bit underwhelmed for the effort it took to find rolled barley. If I made it again, I'd probably just use oatmeal. Needs a little more flavor, but I'm not sure what.

Blue Cornmeal:
Fresh Corn Cornbread with Lemon Thyme Crumble
This was really quite good. I made this around the time of our chili cook-off. They disappeared quickly. This recipe is from the Dahlia Baking Company cookbook (p. 98). Here's an adaptation called "Raspberry Cornbread Loaf with Cornmeal Oat Crumble" from Flavor the Moments (I haven't tried this version). I can't find the lemon thyme recipe on the internet. It's very good. While the recipe called for yellow cornmeal, I used blue. I also used normal thyme and added extra lemon zest. I made muffins instead of a loaf.

Brown Rice Flour:
I haven't made anything with just brown rice flour. The reason for that is that rice flour doesn't do a whole lot. It is the trickiest of the gluten free flours to use. However, I've used it in the following recipes:
Spelt Pancakes from Bon Appetit (under spelt)
Three Flour Pizza Crust from What Liberty Ate (under buckwheat)

Buckwheat Flour:
Three Flour Pizza Crust from What Liberty Ate
This pizza dough uses wheat, buckwheat, and rice flour. It has a nice flavor and texture. Fair warning: the dough tares easily. I've substituted the rice flour for all-purpose, and it still tares. I might use bread flour next time. I have only made the crust and added my own toppings.

Buckwheat Crepes from Food and Wine
We fell in love with this recipe and have eaten a lot of crepes since we found it. That means a lot because I was terrified of crepes because I'd heard they were very challenging to make. Luckily C is a crepe master and taught me well. Uses 1:1 all-purpose to buckwheat flour. I have only made crepes, but have used savory and sweet fillings. This is also the reason we did a Nutella challenge and have 4 different Nutella-like spreads at home.

Millet Flour:
Five Grain Flour Blend (used here in Cream Waffles)
This flour blend is from the book Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. Also uses oat, barley, rye and whole wheat. The blend of grains worked really well! I did not like the waffle recipe because (a) it used a ridiculous amount of cream and C was complaining about his arteries, and (b) it tasted egg-y. When I tried the flour blend in another waffle recipe, I had the same egg-y problem. Maybe I just don't like waffles, or, maybe it has something to do with the waffle iron being brand new. I'll have to give the flour blend a try in muffins or something else.

Hmm? I guess I opened the millet just for this recipe. I haven't used it for anything else yet. That will have to change soon!

Oat Flour:
Flour's Famous Banana Bread
Substituted all-purpose flour with oat flour. Was very good fresh, but not very good left over. A combination of flours is probably the route to go for a quick-bread.

Healthier Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
I made this recipe, but substituted oat flour for the blended rolled oats (I weighed out the correct amount of oats and used that weight in oat flour). These cookies are unique, but not in a bad way. I would prefer them with a little more butter, but they're nice for a lighter, nuttier alternative. I'll try adding oat flour to my normal recipe and see how it goes.

Oatmeal Pancakes from Smitten Kitchen
These oatmeal pancakes use both oat flour and cooked oatmeal. They taste like (surprise!) oatmeal! I used steel cut oatmeal which gave it some texture. I think it would be really tasty and texturally pleasing with coconut. I halved the recipe but used 2 tbsp. butter since I only had skim milk. I used molasses, not honey.

Rye Flour:
Cinnamon Swirl Bread from SoNo Baking Company Cookbook
This is an amazing bread to eat fresh or as french toast. I accidentally swapped the amounts of wheat and rye flour. That gave it a stronger rye flour but was very good. I got compliments on the bread from my qualifying exam committee. You can check out a version made by The Urban Baker.

Most of my non-rye bread inspiration came from Apt. 2B Baking Co. In addition to beautiful pictures and fun stories, you'll find a bunch of great recipes on the site that inspired:
Rhubarb and Sorrel Scones
Peach Galettes and Strawberry Balsamic Galettes

Spelt Flour:
Spelt Pancakes from Bon Appetit
I made these for C the first time he visited me in St. Louis after receiving all the flour. This recipe uses spelt, rice, and oat flours. We both agreed that they are pretty darn good for whole grains!

Wheat-Free Velvety Beet Brownies
I made the recipe but used 1 whole beet, 4 oz. of chocolate, 1/2 tsp. salt, 3/4 cup white sugar + 1/4 cup brown sugar, left out the baking powder, and added a third egg. Ok, so maybe I really didn't make this recipe. Now, I don't know why I keep trying beets. I think it's time to give it up. I can taste them and they make things a little too "earthy." However, using spelt flour in brownies seemed to be just fine. I'm going to try making spelt brownies without beets next time I make brownies. Why not make them a little more nutritious with any flour other than all-purpose?

Conclusions
So, I'm now one year into my every-flour-under-the-sun challenge. What have I learned? I can make a lot more than just rye bread with rye flour. Barley flour is fairly versatile and great in quick-breads (think muffins and pancakes). I think I'm about to learn that spelt flour is also very versatile, I just have to remember to use it. Buckwheat flour is good for crepes. In other things, it can impart a blue/grey tinge which is a bit unappetizing. Oat flour is a great addition to cookies, but, probably not worth buying because you can make your own by giving rolled oats a whirl in the blender (though maybe there is more nutritive value in the flour depending on what part of the grain they use/discard. I read that one person blended steel cut oats in the blender and got good results). Millet and rice flour have been the hardest to use. I wouldn't buy either of them again unless I had to make something gluten-free. I don't think that blue cornmeal is anything special compared to yellow. Not surprisingly, it also imparts a blue/grey tinge (C thinks it makes things look "whole grainy").

I'm really excited to keep using my flours and get to the bottom of the remaining bags. The flour isn't getting any younger and I certainly need to use it up by my next 25th birthday. My goal is to use all of the flours and not throw any away, but brown rice flour might be the exception. When it's all said and done, I'm interested to see what flours I pick as pantry staples. So far, rye and barley have made the list. Buckwheat might if for no reason other than crepes, though I have a recipe for barley crepes enqueue and it's possible that they'll be even better than buckwheat crepes. I've also got a lot of cookie recipes enqueue using buckwheat, spelt, barley, and/or rye flours as well as muffins with buckwheat or spelt. I'll be sure to post the links if I find more keepers!

Vanilla Gelato with S'more Fixin's

Summer isn't complete without a bonfire surrounded by good friends. Growing up in Wisconsin, someone had a bonfire nearly every weekend when the weather permitted. The summer after my senior year of high school, I hosted a lot of bonfires because my family lives on a lake and we have a fire pit in our backyard. It's a really nice setting for a bonfire. Around the 4th of July, it's the perfect place to roast marshmallows and watch the fireworks being launched by neighbors. Our apartment complex in Houston has two fire pits sandwiched between a waterfall and a pond. While it's nice to have them, it's just not the same as back home.

A few weekends ago, we rented a beach house in Matagorda, Texas with some of our good friends. We were hoping we'd be able to have a bonfire on the beach. I made homemade amaretto marshmallows and homemade graham crackers for the occasion. I ran out of time to make homemade chocolate bars, but don't think I hadn't thought of it! Unfortunately, due to the lack of rain, there was a county-wide burn ban. We probably should have known that we wouldn't be able to have a fire because we'd already seen bone-dry ponds and waterways at a wildlife refuge just north of Matagorda.

I hoped we'd be able to use our grill to roast marshmallows instead of a bonfire, but the mosquitoes were so voracious that we were unwilling to leave the house except to run to the beach and back. (Thinking back, there was a fireplace in the house. If only I'd put two and two together...) In the end, we came home with as many homemade marshmallows and graham crackers as we took to the beach house. Defeated, C and I lit a "firewood" candle and made s'mores in our living room. Long after the graham crackers had been eaten, the marshmallows still sat on our counter. Determined to not let them go bad, I decided I'd try them in ice cream.

Objective
Make s'more ice cream using the basic custard recipe I used to make End of Summer Pistachio Almond Gelato.

Materials
Vanilla Gelato (makes about a pint of frozen gelato):
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
1/16 tsp. salt
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar

S'more Fixin's:
1/2 cup chopped marshmallows (about half the size of a mini marshmallow)
1 cup chopped graham crackers (~3 graham crackers)
1.5 oz. chocolate (I used Cordillera Cocuy 70%)

Methods
To make the gelato base:
1. In a medium saucepan (with a heavy bottom if you have it) over medium heat, warm the whole milk, cream, vanilla bean paste, and salt. Warm it thoroughly but do not boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale (use an electric mixer if it's convenient).
2. When the cream mixture is nearly at a boil, remove it from heat. Temper the eggs by whisking about 1/4 cup of the hot cream mixture into the eggs, then slowly stirring this mixture into the rest of the hot cream.
3. Place the pot back on medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken (somewhere around 175°-180°). Stir until the custard covers the back of a wooden spoon and doesn't drip when you touch it.
4. Pour the custard into a large measuring cup or batter bowl (the spout will help you later). Place the custard in an ice bath to cool, stirring frequently. When the mixture is cool, place plastic wrap directly on the custard to seal it in the container. Refrigerate overnight (or however long it takes to chill completely--the colder the better).
To make the fixin's and gelato:
1. Place the oven rack next to the broiler and preheat the oven to 350°. Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprinkle with the chopped marshmallows. Bake the marshmallows until they are lightly browned on top. Take them out of the oven and move the foil with toasted marshmallows to a wire rack to cool slightly. Scrape the toasted marshmallow into a medium bowl with the chopped graham crackers. Stir to mix (kind of like making Rice Krispies). Set aside.
2. In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate (stirring frequently). Once melted, turn of the heat, but keep the chocolate in the double boiler so that it doesn't re-solidify.
3. Prepare your ice cream maker and churn the gelato base according to them manufacturer's instructions. (Note: It will freeze very quickly because it's a small batch. When adding the fixin's, you may need to use a spatula to help keep the ingredients moving in the machine.) Once the base is more-or-less solid, gradually add chunks of the mallowy-graham crackers (a fork is helpful because it will be really sticky). Finally, put the melted chocolate into a plastic bag and cut off one of the corners. Slowly stream the melted chocolate into the churning gelato. This will make little flakes of chocolate instead of chunks.
6. Scrape the gelato into a freezer-safe container with a lid. Place the gelato in the freezer and allow it to solidify, 30 minutes to an hour.

Results
Yum! I could have eaten the entire batch in one sitting. The gelato itself is nicely flavored and not too sweet. The texture is very creamy and thick like a custard. The s'more fixins fit into the texture nicely because they are all soft.

Discussion and Future Directions
I am very glad I chose to use my homemade marshmallows for s'more gelato! (I'm calling this gelato and not frozen custard or ice cream because the recipe for the original custard base was called a gelato and because the fat content is a lot lower than ice cream.) I was pleased that the gelato turned out as smooth and creamy as the pistachio gelato. I had trouble with the texture when I tried using the recipe for chocolate gelato. I think I've found the magic ratio of whole milk:cream:eggs for my taste. The texture is very much like that of a frozen custard vs. an ice cream, but, it's not so fatty as to leave your teeth coated in cream. I very much appreciate frozen desserts with a clean mouth feel. Nothing ruins ice cream like the inability to get it out of my mouth when I'm done eating it!

The fixin's turned out perfectly! I read a lot of recipes for different takes on s'more ice cream. None of them seemed quite right. The texture of fresh marshmallows in ice cream was distracting. Roasting them in the oven and stirring them into graham crackers gave the flavor of a s'more without making the marshmallow noticeable. I was nervous about the graham crackers getting soggy and debated whether or not that would be a good thing or a bad thing. I considered brushing them with melted chocolate to help them maintain a little crunch, but I'm glad I didn't. Instead, they provided soft little pockets of flavor. Finally, I was very pleased that I chose to make chocolate flecks or "stracciatella" instead of adding chunks of chocolate. Hershey's Milk Chocolate is soft enough that chunks would probably be ok, but anything more firm would hurt to bite into when frozen. Since I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, I knew I wanted to use my secret stash of 70% chocolate. I buy it in big individually wrapped chunks from the grocery store. The first time I went to buy chocolate that way, I smelled every single dark chocolate and picked the one that smelled the best--Cordillera Cocuy 70%. I'm hooked. (So hooked that I recently bought a chunk the size of small hardcover novel.)

I'm also hooked on this gelato. It's definitely better than s'mores. Truthfully, I don't really like s'mores because they're so sweet they give me stomach aches. My mom argues that you have to have one s'more a summer for it to be considered summer. This gelato is my new s'more substitute. Not only does it taste better, but as an added bonus, I don't have to go outside in the hot, sticky Houston summer and get attacked by mosquitos to enjoy it! What a great and cooling take on the summer essential!

Supplementary Materials

Angel Food Cake with Rhubarb Curd Whipped Cream

While I lived in St. Louis, I did a lot of baking to avoid graduate school. I found that baking  was gratifying because I could produce something delicious, which I found a lot more fulfilling than failed experiments. Baking, particularly for others, was the easiest way that I found purpose. I even started this food blog to encourage my creativity (with writing in addition to baking). During my 18 months in St. Louis, I had a lot of baking/cooking successes and a few failures. I rarely made the same thing twice, which allowed me to try a lot of new recipes (and not worry about mastering past failures). This also forced me to learn a lot of new techniques. Some of the highlights were my first gelato, mousse, homemade lemon curd, meringue for an angel food cake, and a pumpkin pie made from a squash. I even made homemade granola, everything bagels, and mini "piecakens" by baking little pies in a mini muffin tin and baking them inside of cupcakes. Since moving to Houston, I've had two extra mouths to use as taste testers! I experimented with scones,  puff pastry, muffins made with steel cut oats, and sunflower seed butter. I made a pie with lard crust. I made a creamy pie with brandy and chocolate liqueur. Most recently, I made homemade graham crackers and homemade amaretto marshmallows for s'mores.

So why all of this back story? The recipe I'm sharing today pulls techniques from a few of my most successful St. Louis kitchen experiments. Of all of these kitchen experiments, my favorite was probably homemade angel food cake. I found a recipe for angel food cake from John Barricelli (see this recipe for an orange version). This recipe seemed to have a lot of angel food cake no-nos. First of all, it requested a nonstick tube pan. It called for granulated sugar instead of superfine baker's sugar or powdered sugar. The cake was to be baked at 350º instead of the typical 300º. The oven rack was to be placed in the middle position, not lower in the oven like most recipes. But what really set it apart from all other recipes I'd seen was that it called for dissolving half of the sugar in the egg whites over a double boiler, then whipping it into meringue. Needless to say, I was skeptical of the recipe, but knew I had to try it. And how did it turn out? Perfect. It had exactly the right airy texture without the metallic taste you get from boxed angel food cake mixes. Since I made the first vanilla angel food cake, I've made a chocolate version, and now the version with rhubarb frosting that I'm sharing today.

I wanted to use pink frosting in honor of my great grandma, Nan, who made me angel food cakes frosted with pink Cool Whip for my birthday when I was a little girl. I was lucky enough to be able to spend 12 of my now 25 birthdays with my great grandma. I knew I wanted a frosting more sophisticated than Cool Whip, but what? What summer food is pink? Rhubarb! With 12 egg yolks left over from the angel food cake, I thought I'd throw half of them in rhubarb curd. I stirred the rhubarb curd into whipped cream for pink frosting (I got the idea from Behind the Skillet). The angel food cake was adapted from John Barricelli's recipe and the rhubarb curd from Everyday Flavours.

Objective
Make an angel food cake with rhubarb curd whipped cream frosting.

Materials

Angel Food Cake:
12 egg whites (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cup sugar, divided

1 tsp. lime juice

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

1/2 tbsp. vanilla paste

1 cup cake flour, sifted

10-inch tube pan (do not grease)

Rhubarb Curd:
1 pound rhubarb, chopped into 1/2" pieces
1/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup seedless raspberry puree*
3-4 tbsp. unsalted butter

*blend raspberries (frozen is fine) until smooth, then strain

Rhubarb Curd Whipped Cream Frosting:
1 recipe of Rhubarb Curd, fully chilled (you may use less)
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Methods

To make the Angel Food Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350° with the rack in the middle. Place the tube pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and set aside. Set up your stand mixer with the whisk attachment for later use.

2. In the bottom of a double boiler, bring 1 inch of water to a boil. In the top, whisk together the egg whites, 3/4 cup sugar, lime juice, cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla paste until the sugar dissolves. Move the mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk, starting on low speed and gradually increasing to high speed, until the meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks (do not beat them so long they dry out). Using a large rubber spatula, fold in the flour and the remaining 3/4 cup sugar.

3. Gently scrape the batter into the tube pan. Tap the pan a few times to to remove air bubbles. Smooth the top of the batter by running a rubber spatula over it.

4. Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched and is lightly browned. Invert the cake onto a wire rack or wine bottle to cool for 1 hour. Release the cake from the pan by gently pulling the cake away from the sides of the pan. You may need to run a plastic knife around the edge, but be careful not to cut into the cake. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the Rhubarb Curd:
1. In a small bowl, mix the chopped rhubarb with 1/4 cup sugar and juice from half of a lime. Stir and set aside for 30 minutes to an hour. Place into a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat until the the rhubarb is completely broken down (about 10-15 minutes). Cool briefly. Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree. Set aside.
2. In the top of a double boiler over boiling water, whisk the egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and juice of 1/2 lime. Whisk to begin to dissolve the sugar. Add the rhubarb puree and seedless raspberry puree. Whisk until the mixture comes to 160ºF. Remove from heat and strain through a fine meshed sieve. Gradually stir in the butter, tablespoon by tablespoon. Move the curd to a container with a lid, place plastic wrap directly on the curd, and chill.

To make the Rhubarb Curd Whipped Cream Frosting:
1. Whip 1 cup heavy cream to medium peaks.
2. Fold in 1/2-1 cup rhubarb curd.

Results
The cake turned out great (though I was a little too vigorous trying to get it out of the pan and ripped part of it). The texture was light and a bit sticky and had a nicely browned crust. The rhubarb curd tasted like (surprise) rhubarb. While it wasn't as thick as I tend to make lemon curd, it was easy to stir into whipped cream. I would call the color a light mauve. I added a drop of magenta food coloring to the whipped cream to intensify the color of the frosting a smidgen.

Discussion and Future Directions
I really love this angel food cake and am so glad I gave it a try that St. Louis morning. I simply cannot imagine ever eating a boxed angel food cake again. Mind you, this angel food cake in particular is more challenging than a boxed mix because it requires the double boiler and you have to know a thing or two about meringue to know when you're at a stiff (and not dry) peak. There are a number of simpler angel food cakes on the internet that simply require folding dry ingredients into the meringue. I've never made any of those recipes, and now, there's no need because this recipe is perfect. Don't have a double boiler? Neither do I! It was one of the items that didn't make it from St. Louis to Houston because I didn't want to make the space to pack it (now I regret that decision because it was a very nice depth and made of glass, which I prefer to metal because it is nonreactive). Instead, I set a glass Pyrex bowl in a saucepan and it worked very well. If you try this, just make sure that you cover most of the edge of the pot or you'll risk steam burns.

Now onto the rhubarb whipped cream frosting. I don't think I anticipated how much the curd would taste like rhubarb! Also, I'd seen a lot of pictures of yellow rhubarb curd, so I found myself pleasantly surprised by the dusty rose/mauve color of mine (see the photo below).  For the light, airy sweetness of the angel food cake, I thought a tart, refreshing topping would be perfect. While I liked it, I was a bit overzealous with the frosting and wished I only lightly frosted it. Too much frosting overpowered the lightness of the cake. After all, we eat angel food cake because it's "healthier" than other cakes. It certainly packs carbohydrates with the sugar, but at least it's cholesterol free (without the frosting..)! If I made the frosting again, I think I would pipe it along the edges instead of use it to completely frost the cake.

This was a great dessert to make for my summer birthday. I took it along to a combined birthday party. Another friend made chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and someone brought homemade peach greek frozen yogurt. With all of the desserts we had, I was pleased to be able to take home about half of the cake for snacks. I even managed to save one piece for my actual birthday!

Supplementary Materials

Peach Galettes with Rye Pastry

Last weekend was ridiculously hot. The temperature on Saturday was rapidly approaching 105º. We went to the farmers' market, but the heat radiating off the pavement was too much that we decided to go to the grocery store instead. That was a great decision because they had the most beautiful and fragrant strawberries I've seen all year. For the most part, I've stopped buying strawberries at the grocery store because they are usually a disappointment. We missed out on strawberry picking last weekend when we were on vacation in Buffalo, New York. I figured that meant I wouldn't be baking anything with strawberries this year.

That made me sad because I wanted to make a strawberry galette with the rye pastry from Apt 2B Baking Co.'s Strawberry Rye Galettes and the filling from the Balsamic Strawberry Galette from Honey and Jam that I made last year. Thankfully, these strawberries were just what I needed to make said pastries. They were delicious and I wholeheartedly recommend you try them next time you go strawberry picking! To do that, make the pastry recipe that follows and use this recipe for the filling (keep everything the same but use about 2 1/2 cups of sliced strawberries. Also, you can reduce just the liquid coming off of the berries without adding additional honey and balsamic).

The strawberry galettes, especially the pastry, got such high ratings from C and our roommate that I knew I knew I would be making them again. I don't even like crust and I loved these! With the 4th of July coming up, I was throwing around ideas for what to make for a potluck. Because we're living in the south, I was thinking peach cobbler. Peach cobbler isn't the most portable dessert, so I thought I'd try peach galettes using the rye pastry from before and a cinnamon and peach filling. That's just what I did.

Objective
Make peach galettes with rye pastry adapted from Apt 2B Baking Co. and a filling based on Fork Knife Swoon's Rustic Peach Galettes (with some additions from Honey and Jam).

Materials
For the pastry:
4.3 oz. rye flour
4.3 oz. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
6 oz. unsalted butter (12 tablespoons), cold and cut into small cubes
4 oz. water, ice cold (1/2 cup) **you will not add all of this water**
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

For the peach filling:
2 pounds peaches (8-9 small peaches)
1-2 tbsp. lemon juice (optional--omit if your peaches aren't very sweet)
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. almond flour (alternatively: finely chop or process whole almonds)
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten

Methods
To make the pastry: Add the apple cider vinegar to 4 oz. cold water with a couple of ice cubes and set aside. Whisk together the rye flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, salt and black pepper. Add the cubes of cold butter to the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, squish/rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles pea-sized clumps. Remove the ice cubes from the water. While stirring the butter-flour mixture with a wooden spoon, slowly pour in water, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the dough begins to come together. For me, this was only 2 oz. of water and I made mine a lot wetter than I should have (and I preferred it that way because it was easier to roll. I just added a little more flour between layers at the folding steps). Gather the dough together in a ball and pat out to a rectangle (give or take 2" thick). Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour. You can cheat and use the freezer, but watch it carefully to make sure it only chills and doesn't freeze. If you do this make sure to flip the dough over halfway through. Once the dough is chilled, move it to a lightly floured surface and roll it out to a 1" thick rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds like a letter, then roll back out to a 1" thick rectangle. Turn the dough 90º, and repeat the folding and rolling process twice more. Wrap the dough in saran wrap and chill again for 2 hours or more. Overnight is fine.

To make the peach filling: Slice the peaches into slices of relatively uniform width (I left the skins on for color, but if you prefer, you can peel them first). In a large bowl, gently mix the peach slices with the brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice/vanilla (if you decide to add them). Set aside for 30-60 minutes. At some point, gently move the mixture to a strainer (placed over a bowl or in the sink) and allow the juices to drain. This will help prevent the dough from becoming soggy. In a small bowl, mix together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, and granulated sugar and set aside.

To make the galettes: Preheat the oven to 375º. Line a baking sheet (make sure it has sides) with parchment paper and set aside. Remove the prepared dough from the fridge and cut it into squares (6-10 depending on how many galettes you want and how big you want them). On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece out to a 1/8" thick square (or circle if you're more skilled with a rolling pin than I am). Sprinkle 1/2-3/4 tsp. of the flour-sugar mixture into the center of the square, leaving a 3/4"-1" border on each side. Arrange peach slices in a single but overlapping layer within the borders of the pastry (I used about one small peach worth of slices per galette). Fold the top edge down over the filling and the bottom edge up over the filling, overlapping the peaches, but not totally covering the peaches (see the picture below). Repeat with the side edges, then press the corners with your thumbs to seal the dough. Gently move the galette to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the other galettes. Only place 6 galettes per baking sheet. Brush the edges of the pastry with the beaten egg. You can sprinkle it with sugar, but surprisingly, it looks prettier without it. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the juices from the fruit are bubbling. Move the galettes to a wire rack to cool. These are best eaten fresh or on day two.

Results
The pastry is delicious. The filling is not very peachy or sweet, but that's because these weren't the peachiest peaches we had. The tarts were very beautiful with a golden brown pastry and the orange and yellow peach skins and fruit.

Discussion and Future Directions
To be fair, the strawberry galettes really out-shined the peach galettes. Thankfully, most people only got to try the peach galettes, so they don't know that they missed! I think the quality of the fruit is what makes or breaks fruit desserts, especially in tarts, crostatas, and galettes. In a pie, you can hide the fruit with enough sugar and a delicious crust. In a dessert like this, the pastry can break the dessert but it can't make the dessert. I think this is a good recipe to set aside for a time when you get a really great batch of fruit. It's a recipe to keep in the back of your mind, but not one to plan on making until you have in your possession the most delicious fruit around.

I'm envisioning rhubarb galettes and cherry galettes. Maybe I could even bake the pastry empty and fill it with custard and fresh blueberries. Yes, that sounds delicious! I really love this pastry recipe. To be honest, I was skeptical of adding pepper to pastry dough the first time I did it, but it's a great idea. And the rye flour! The rye adds such a nice flavor. Most pie crusts I've made are flavorless or take on a fatty flavor. This one is just lightly flavored and delicate. I think I might even try it for a pie the next time I make pie. That will probably be a pumpkin pie over Thanksgiving because I really don't see why I would make a pie when these are so cute and easy. It might not seem easy to you, but I really think it's significantly easier than a pie. The pie crust is always my pitfall--sometimes it's the rolling, sometimes the blind-baking, or even the burnt edges after using a pie shield. I just really hate making pies. But galettes on the other hand, galettes I will happily make again!

Supplementary Materials