Quick Pies AKA Galette

By now we know the root of many of my recipes is an “oh, sh*t” moment when I don’t have what I need and it’s too late or there isn’t enough time to run to town. I call these my Quick Pies, but their fancy and proper name is galette. Basically, it’s just a pie without a pie pan.

Necessity is the mother of invention. While I didn’t invent this classic French pastry, this method is very HIH. Both rustic and refined while incorporating simple easy to find ingredients. It’s amazing how impressed people are when I show up with one of these for the amount of work I actually have to put into making one. Very high return on compliments for the effort. That’s a win in my book!

This recipe is about a simple as baking can get and allows you to use my very simple formula to create all kinds of different fruit fillings to fill your quick pies. In my home, this recipe also qualifies as a pantry pull. I always have ingredients on hand to whip one of these up in a flash. The only item I might not have is a rolled refrigerated pie crust. While pie crust seems intimidating, Carla Hall’s pie crust recipe will not let you down. Five gold stars to you if you decide to go with scratch made pie crust!

Recipe Evolution

The first time I threw one of these quick pies together, my dear husband had forgotten to tell me we were responsible for bringing dessert to a dinner with friends. With an hour before we were supposed to leave, I didn’t have many options, but I had been experimenting with pie in the weeks prior. I didn’t have a pie pan at the time, I’d just been using disposables, and I was out! All of the ingredients for pie were on hand, I just didn’t have all the tools. This idea popped into my head from a recent show I’d watched on the Food Network, but there was no time to research, I just had to wing it!

I had some blackberries and peaches that needed to be used so I threw those in a pot with some sugar, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt, thickened with the cornstarch slurry, threw it on top of a crust and prayed. It turned out great, and no one was the wiser to the newlyweds needing to improve their communication skills, HA!

Keys to Success

1. Don’t skip the egg wash. Egg washing the crust under the filling helps to keep your crust from getting soggy. Egg washing the outer crust before dusting with turbinado sugar helps the sugar to stick and gets you the perfect golden sheen on your crust.
2. Mind the temperature of your filling. My recommendation for sure success is to let the filling cool to room temperature before adding to the crust. The filling will be less likely to run towards the edge of the crust and it won’t heat the crust making it difficult to work with and easy to tear. If you’re in a hurry, you can still make warm filling work, you just have to be extra careful when folding your crust over.
3. It doesn’t have to be perfect! The rustic nature of galette is perfect for those of us in a hurry who don’t have time to fuss over perfection. It’s not supposed to look perfect. Don’t fret if your folds aren’t even, or you had to patch a hole.
4. Remember the equation: Fruit + Acid + Sweetness + Salt. I’ve added some of my favorite combinations in the notes section of the recipe. I encourage you to experiment with your favorite fruits and sweet components. Last night I through together a sweet cherry quick pie with orange juice and dark brown sugar and it was DELISH. I may have also added a splash of bourbon. Ok, I did add a splash of bourbon. I know you’re not surprised.
5. Leave yourself plenty of room to fold. The filling should be thick enough not to run to the edge, but you definitely want to make sure you have plenty of pie crust border to fold. The recipe says two inches. I find this to be the perfect amount of crust to make strong folds to hold in your filling.

Quick Pies – AKA – Galette

Alden Elizabeth

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Print Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Course dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 6 people

Equipment

• 1 parchment paper
• 1 Baking sheet
• 1 wooden spoon or rubber spatula
• Measuring cups and spoons

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 16 oz package of frozen fruit thawed 10-15 minutes or 2 heaping cups of fresh
• 2 teaspoons citrus juice lemon, orange, or lime
• ¼ cup sugar or sugar alternative brown sugar, stevia, coconut sugar, honey
• ¼ cup water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 refrigerated rolled pie crust
• 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
• 2 teaspoons granulated or turbinado sugar
• pinch salt

Instructions

 

• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the fruit, water, your choice of sugar/sugar alternative, salt, and citrus juice and cook until the fruit is warm and has produced plenty of liquid.
• Into a small bowl, measure out 2 tablespoons of fruit liquid and combine with 2 the cornstarch to create a slurry. Mix until the slurry is smooth and homogenous.
• Slowly stir the slurry into the fruit mixture and bring to a boil. Continue to boil the mixture, stirring gently and occasionally until the mixture becomes thick and glossy. Once thick and glossy, turn off the heat and remove from the stove to cool.
• At this point, your filling could be frozen for up to 2 months stored in an airtight container, then thawed when it’s time to assemble your quick pie.
• Preheat the oven to 400° F.
• Remove the pie crust from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature, 10-15 minutes before attempting to unroll to prevent cracking.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and unroll the pie crust directly onto the parchment.
• Brush the surface of the pie crust with a coat of egg wash. If your crust cracked when being unrolled, gently smooth the cracks back together before brushing on the egg wash, this will help to repair the cracks.
• Leaving a 2 inch border around the edge of the crust, add the fruit mixture to the center of the pie crust. Best if cooled to room temperature. If your fruit mixture is still warm, you will need to be extra careful with your crust.
• Starting with the edge of crust closest to you, fold the uncovered portion of the crust over the top of the fruit mixture, and continue to fold approximately 2 inch sections around the pie creating pleats of crust around the filling.
• Brush the surface of the crust with a thin layer of egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated or turbinado sugar.
• Bake at 400° F for 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
• Cut into 6-8 pie shaped slices, depending on the appetite of your guests.
• Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Notes

Recommended combinations:
Mixed berries + Lemon Juice + White Sugar,
Peaches + Lemon Juice + Light Brown Sugar,
Cherries + Orange Juice + Maple Syrup.
Blueberries + Lemon Juice + Honey,
Blackberries & Peaches + Lemon Juice + Dark Brown Sugar

Keyword pie

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

What flavor combination will you try?

XOXO,

Alden