California Plum Galette

A rustic free-form galette of cold, flaky butter pastry folded loosely around wedges of ripe Santa Rosa plum that bake down to crimson jam, the exposed crust brushed with cream, scattered with coarse sugar, and baked to a deep, blistered gold

Origin: California, United States

From the journey of Plum.

The fresh-plum dessert of the New World owes its existence to one man and one fruit. The plum at the heart of this galette is the Santa Rosa, a Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) bred by Luther Burbank at his experimental farm in Santa Rosa, California, and introduced in 1906. Burbank, the most celebrated plant breeder of his age, worked extensively with the East Asian plum that had been carried to California by way of Japan, crossing it with American and European stock to produce a fruit of unusual size, beauty, and balance: a deep crimson-purple skin, amber flesh streaked red at the stone, and a sweet-tart flavour that made it for decades the most widely grown plum in the world. Unlike the European plum (Prunus domestica) of Lorraine and Gascony, which lends itself to drying and long keeping, the Japanese plum is a juicy, perishable dessert fruit, eaten ripe and fresh, and its arrival reshaped what a plum dessert could be in the abundant orchards of the American West. The galette is the natural vessel for it: a French country form, free of any tin, in which a single round of flaky pastry is rolled out, heaped with sliced fruit, and folded back over itself in rough pleats, leaving the centre open to the heat. The Santa Rosa, sliced into wedges and tossed with a little sugar, collapses into a jammy, scarlet pool as it bakes, whilst the cream-brushed, sugar-crusted rim turns flaky and burnished. It is a homely, forgiving dessert, born where the orchard met the home kitchen, and it celebrates the plum in its freshest and most ephemeral state.

Ingredients

Pastry

200 g plain flour
140 g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 tbsp caster sugar
0.5 tsp fine salt
4 tbsp iced water

Filling

600 g ripe Santa Rosa plums, stoned and cut into thick wedges
60 g caster sugar
1.5 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp lemon juice
0.25 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp ground almonds or fine semolina

To finish

2 tbsp double cream or beaten egg, for brushing
2 tbsp demerara or other coarse sugar, for the crust

Method

Make the pastry. Rub or pulse the cold butter into the flour, sugar, and salt until it forms uneven flakes the size of small peas, with some butter still visible. Sprinkle in the iced water and bring it together into a rough, shaggy dough without overworking it.
Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap it, and chill for at least an hour. Meanwhile, toss the plum wedges with the caster sugar, cornflour, lemon juice, and cinnamon, and set aside.
Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan) and line a large baking sheet with parchment. Roll the chilled pastry out on a floured surface into a rough round about 32cm across; it need not be neat. Transfer it to the lined sheet.
Scatter the ground almonds over the centre of the pastry, leaving a clear border of about 6cm. Pile the plums onto the almonds, mounding them slightly and leaving their accumulated juices behind in the bowl.
Fold the bare border up and over the edge of the fruit, pleating it loosely as you go around, so the centre stays open and the crust overlaps the rim of the filling.
Brush the folded crust with cream or beaten egg and scatter it generously with the coarse sugar. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the plums are bubbling and jammy at the centre.
Let the galette cool on its sheet for at least 20 minutes so the filling sets before you slide it onto a board. Serve warm or at room temperature, with cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Notes

The Santa Rosa is the classic choice for its colour and balance, but any ripe, juicy Japanese plum (Prunus salicina and its hybrids) will make a fine galette: look for fruit that yields to gentle pressure and smells fragrant at the stem. Sweeter, less acidic varieties may need a little less sugar, whilst very tart plums may need a touch more, so taste the raw fruit and adjust. The pastry can be made a day ahead and kept chilled, or frozen, which suits the spontaneity of high plum season. Should the juices run despite the cornflour, that is simply the nature of the fresh plum and the charm of the free-form tart; the parchment catches them, and the galette is no worse for a little caramelised syrup at its edge.

The Gastrographer

Name: California Plum Galette
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour; 140 g cold unsalted butter, diced; 1 tbsp caster sugar; 0.5 tsp fine salt; 4 tbsp iced water; 600 g ripe Santa Rosa plums, stoned and cut into thick wedges; 60 g caster sugar; 1.5 tbsp cornflour; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 0.25 tsp ground cinnamon; 2 tbsp ground almonds or fine semolina; 2 tbsp double cream or beaten egg, for brushing; 2 tbsp demerara or other coarse sugar, for the crust

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control