When Words Fail: Red Fruit Galettes

If words fail you: close your mouth. Open your ears, your eyes always.
Let your hands do the talking. Your hands will tell you if you are hurt, if they cannot do the work. Your hands will tell you if you are soft, full of love, caressing butter into flour.
Your hands will cry for you as they pound dough into submission. They will breathe happy as you fold layers over themselves.
Again and again.
The motions will kill you and break you. The rhythms will mend you and heal you.
Your hands will be your work, your tools, your means of art.
Your hands will be your weapons, your weights, your wagers of war.
Can everything be wonderful? Some of the folds you have whispered into submission will open in the oven. Some of the sugar you have rubbed into fruit will bubble over, caramelize on the baking sheet. Oh, it was supposed to be hotter? Colder? Smaller? It’s ten grams too big?
It’s just a pastry. You aren’t saving lives here. You are trying to bring a little sweetness into the world. Don’t let it steal yours.
Things can be sweet and they can be sour and they can be together and they will be together.
You can always add more sugar. More more more.
But if there is no need for sugar, toss it. Sprinkle it over your shoulder, pray for good luck, never look back. If it bites, you will bite back. It will feel like magic. It will feel like strength.
When words fail you, close your mouth. Let your hands do the talking.

Yields: around 10 medium galettes

Why I love this recipe: my flaky piecrust, unfettered by the heavy weight of a pie filling, rises to even flakier heights in these red fruit galettes. The seasonal fruits are fresh and textured, with jammy strawberries, seedy raspberries and silky rhubarb coming together in sweet + tart harmony.

Notes: any  red fruit works here! Try sweet or sour cherries, try red currants, or buy whatever looks good at the market. Just be sure to keep the sweet and sour in harmony.

For the galette crust:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, one stick cold, one frozen
• 6 ounces ice cold water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 egg yolk, mixed with water
• turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

For the filling:

• 1 cup fresh, washed raspberries
• 1 cup chopped fresh rhubarb
• 2 cups sliced, washed strawberries
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• scant 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt

1. To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Use your fingers to cut in half the stick of cold butter until it is the size of peas. Then cut in the other half of the butter, leaving it in bigger, visible pieces.
2. Add the apple cider vinegar to the water and make a well in the center of the flour and butter mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix the water into the flour until just combined.
3. If the dough seems dry, add more water a couple of teaspoons at a time. Press the dough together,  form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the the dough in the freezer for an hour, or in the fridge overnight.
4. Gently toss the fruit with the sugar, lemon juice, zest, vanilla, salt and cornstarch together in a bowl. Refrigerate until needed.
5. On a lightly floured surface, flour the chilled disk of dough. Begin to roll it out, rolling in one direction at a time. As you roll it, pick it up and rotate it, to ensure that it doesn’t stick to any surfaces. Use flour as you need to.
6. Roll the dough out as thinly as possible and cut around 8 circles. Re-roll the edges and scraps to get as many circles out of the dough as you can.
7. Transfer the circles of dough to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Arrange a handful of the fruit over the tops of each galette round.
8. Fold the edges of the dough over the fruit and press gently to seal the dough together. Repeat with all circles of dough.
9. Put the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze the galettes for 25 minutes, or until very firm.
10. While the galettes are chilling, preheat the oven to 375º F and whisk the egg yolk with a drop of water in a small dish.
11. When you are ready to bake, remove the galettes from the freezer and brush the edges of each with egg wash and sprinkle with raw sugar.
12. Bake the tarts, rotating the pans halfway through until they are deep golden brown and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm with vanilla ice cream.