Butternut Squash Galette

If you've been lucky to try a galette before, than this may inspire you to bake one at home.  My first galette eating experience was at 3 CUPS in Chapel Hill, NC. I think I had a galette with sweet potato and goat cheese. It was delicious, and has been on my cooking to-do list for a while now.  Making this is labor intensive, but straightforward (obviously you can patronize 3 CUPS, but....), because there is little room to mess things up.  This would be a delicious fall or winter main dinner dish (especially for a vegetarian main dish at Thanksgiving).  Allow 4 hours for prep and cooking.



This winter squash galette recipe is from my Deborah Madison cookbook.   You can use winter squash or butternut squash. I adapted it slightly for what was available to me here in Belgium. I used butternut squash, oregano instead of sage, and half whole wheat flour in the galette dough; any other substitutions are written below.

Winter Squash Galette
2 1/2 pounds of winter squash (such as butternut squash)
1 small head garlic, cloves separated, but not peeled (I used 6-7 cloves and it was plenty)
1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced (I used 2 small red onions)
12 fresh sage leaves, chopped, or 2 t dried (I subbed in 2 t oregano, and found it to be good)
1/2 cup parmesan
salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten for the egg wash

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Brush the tops of the squash with olive oil. Place the garlic into the squash cavities and then put the squash cut side down onto a sheet pan. Roast 40 minutes.
2. After the squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out the squash and squeeze the garlic from the cloves. Mash together, but leave some texture.
3. Heat up about 1 T of olive oil in a skillet, and add the onion and sage, cooking for about 12 minutes. Add it to the squash and season with salt and pepper. Add in parmesan cheese and combine.  Set filling aside.





Galette dough:
Enough for one large galette or a dozen 3-inch turnovers.
2 cups all purpose or whole-wheat pastry flour (I used 1 cup pastry flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
1/2 t salt
1 T sugar
12 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I ended up using only 8 T)
1/2 cup ice water, or as needed

1. Mix the flour, salt and sugar together inside a bowl.  Cut in the butter by hand. I used a fork to mash it into the flour until I had several pea-sized chunks.
2. Sprinkle the ice water over the top, adding in 1 T of water at a time and working it into the dough. You will be kneading it in slowly. The ice water helps to keep the butter cold, so you will have a flakey crust.
3. Continue to combine, until the dough comes together into a ball. Press it into a disk and refrigerate 15 minutes, if the butter feels soft.  I found it easier to roll out when cold.




Pastry flours ready for the mixing (above)




Pastry dough with pea-sized butter chunks (above)



Making the Galette:
1. Roll out the dough on a lightly-floured surface. Be liberal with the flour so you don't end up making the galette dough stick to your counter.  Roll it out, then rotate it, to make sure it doesn't stick.  Roll out to 14 inches in diameter.
2. When ready, lightly fold the galette into quarters and transfer it to the back of a sheet pan or cookie pan and then unfold it. It will be larger than the pan.
3. Place the butternut squash filling into the center, and spread the filling around, leaving 2 inches at the border.
4. Pleat the dough over the filling, then brush the edges with the beaten egg. Bake until the crust is golden (about 25 minutes). I found it took about 40 minutes to bake.