Mixed Berry Galette in my 8 inch Cast Iron Skillet

Oh, how I love berries. Berries are the most favorite part of summer, among few other things. Summer vacations are finally over and we are into the second week of school. This is going to be a very busy school year with lots of after school activities. Soccer, tennis, swimming, piano lessons, Lego meets, Spanish class.. phew.. I got tired just writing them down. 

And did I tell you that I have started my own thing as a Freelance Food Photographer? Yeah.. it has been about 6 weeks now and I am loving it so far. 

Anyways, coming back to the recipe... Mixed Berry Galette had been on my mind for a long time now.... ever since gorgeous berries hit the market. I used raspberries, blackberries and blueberries in this recipe. You can make it with just one or two kinds of berries. 

Ingredients:

• Flour - 1 1/4 Cup
• Butter - 1/3 Cup, cold
• Chilled Water - 1/2 Cup to 3/4 Cup
• Confectioners Sugar - 2 tbsp (for the dough)
• Salt - a fat pinch
• Mixed Berries (raspberries, blueberries, raspberries) - 1 1/2 Cups
• Lemon Zest - 1/2 tsp
• Brown Sugar - 1 tbsp (add 1 tbsp more if you prefer it sweeter)
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp, freshly squeezed
• 2 tsp brown sugar mixed with a tiny pinch of cinnamon powder to sprinkle on the galette before baking (optional)
• Egg white mixed with a little water for brushing the edges of the galette

Add the flour, confectioners sugar and salt to your food processor and give it 2 or 3 pulses. Throw in the cold butter and give a few pulses till it resembles a coarse crumbly mixture. Pour in the water and run the food processor till everything comes together. Take it out on a floured surface and gently knead it into a ball. Wrap it in a cling wrap/plastic wrap and chill it for at least 30 minutes. 

You can use a stand mixer instead. 

While the dough is chilling, take the berries and mix it with lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 400 F. 

Grease the cast iron skillet with butter (or line cookie sheet with parchment paper). On a floured surface, roll out the dough couple of inches bigger  than your cast iron skillet and about 1/8 inch in thickness. If it is too thick it will become chewy instead of flaky.

Transfer it carefully to the iron skillet. Using your fingers gently tuck in the rolled out dough and stretch it out so that it plops over the edges. Stick it back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Now strain out the excess juice from the berry mixture and spread out the mixed berry mix onto the galette.

Now gently fold over the edges and crimp as you go. Make sure that your rolled out dough is pliable enough to be folded or it will crack. The best part about these delicious pastries is that it doesn't need to be perfect. Galettes are free-form and has this rustic look to it that I absolutely love.

Brush the edge with the egg wash (egg white mixed with little water) and sprinkle the brown sugar mixed with a little cinnamon if you want to. 

Bake for about 25-30 minutes till the edges start turning golden brown. Take it out of the oven and let it cool before serving. The crust turned out beautifully crisp.

To ensure that the crust is at it crunchiest best, follow the tips below:

• Roll out the dough to 1/8th of inch thickness
• Chill the dough once before rolling out and once after transferring it to your skillet/cookie sheet
• Make sure there's no excess liquid in the fruit mix.

A scoop of vanilla ice cream would have been perfect to balance out the tartness of the fresh mixed berry galette, but as it turns out, the husband had polished off the carton last Friday when I was really busy and not looking! So, I had a slice with a cup of steaming hot black coffee.

I had some leftover dough since I used a 8 inch skillet to bake my mixed berry galette in, so I baked these gorgeous turnovers with applesauce.