Galette for Dinner, a Dream Come True.
Our favorite types of dishes are the kind that hit the spot any time of the day, like this savory mushroom galette. Serve it with a simply dressed green salad for lunch or dinner, and enjoy it again the next morning, warmed up with your coffee for a rich, umami-laden breakfast. Anytime you enjoy it, we know you’re gonna love it!
What Is a Galette?
The word galette comes from the French word galet means a small pebble, like a smooth river stone. However, the kind of galette you eat is only stone-like in appearance—a bit like a paving stone. A galette is a free-form, single crust “tart” with either a savory or sweet filling. One of the reasons we love galettes is that it requires no special pie dish or tart pan. You simply fold the buttery galette crust edges over themselves to hold in all the filling. And if you’re curious how to pronounce galette, it’s just guh-let—easy enough, right?
How to Make a Galette?
Making galettes is no more difficult or time consuming that baking a pie—if you know how to make a pie, you know how to cook galettes. And if you don’t know how to make a pie, fear not! We’ll walk you through it.
- Begin by making a galette crust! Whisk together your dry galette dough ingredients, cut in the cold butter, add a sprinkling of ice water and chill your galette dough.
- Mix together the mushroom pastry filling. Wash, slice and sauté the savory wild mushroom and onion filling.
- Roll the chilled dough into a big circle. Slather the middle of the circle with crème fraîche, leaving room at the edges of your pastry crust to fold up the crust into a tart.
- Mound the cooked mushrooms on top of the crème fraîche, and sprinkle with Gruyère cheese and fresh herbs. Carefully fold up the edges, and pop that beautiful mushroom tart appetizer in the oven.
What Are Wild Mushrooms?
Many originally “wild” mushrooms are no longer truly wild—as in foraged by hand in a drizzly forest—instead, they are farmed. There’s nothing wrong with using easy-to-find, store-bought mushrooms, like cremini or even button mushrooms, for this mushroom galette, but we think it tastes extra delicious when you use edible wild mushrooms like chanterelles, morels, or even lobster mushrooms. If you’re not a forager yourself, you can often find truly wild, foraged types of wild mushrooms at your local specialty grocery store or farmers market. They’re a seasonal product, so availability can vary—but eating with the season is half the fun, right?
How to Clean Mushrooms
To wash or not to wash your mushrooms, that is the question. Some cooks choose not to wash their fungi because they’re worried that mushrooms—which already release quite a lot of water when they encounter a hot pan— might absorb even more water during the washing process, and then taste bland after being cooked. For years, cookbooks and chefs advised people to wipe down their ‘shrooms with a damp paper towel or mushroom brush to remove all the dirt rather than rinsing them. However, that was a really, really tedious task, and so we’re thrilled to share that new recommendations (thank you, Cook’s Illustrated and Mark Bittman) state that a quick rinse under water—don’t soak them, though— is actually just fine and doesn’t result in watery, bland mushrooms after all... So! Go ahead and give those mushrooms a quick rinse. No harm no foul.
Tools You’ll Need To Make This Savory Galette:
- A large mixing bowl, whisk and pastry cutter (or two knives) for the dough.
- A heavy skillet like this will be perfect for cooking mushrooms and onions!
- Roll out your dough with our favorite rolling pin.
- A slotted spoon and pastry brush and you’re almost done.
- Grab that rimmed baking sheet and put her in the oven.
Other Wild Mushroom Recipes You Are Going To Love:
Once you’ve made this mushroom galette recipe, here are a few more mushroom dishes to try:
- Wild Mushroom Risotto is oh so cozy.
- For the soup lovers: Wild Mushroom Chowder with Bacon and Leeks or Hungarian Mushroom Soup
- Rigatoni with Mushroom Sauce is a pasta lovers dream.
- And in case that’s not enough, here are our 20 Best Mushroom Recipes to indulge in.
So You Foraged the Forest (or Grocery Store) For Mushrooms, Now What?
We hope that this wild mushroom recipe was a hit in your home. Snap a photo of your finished mushroom galette, and maybe even a video of the beautiful people you feed it to. Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy eating!
