Berry Galette

It truly summertime...unless you happen to live in Australia, or Argentina (for example)...then you can have your 'hot chocolate', your 'hearty' stews, and all the 'heart and soul' warming foods that are good for keeping the chills away. Anyway; even in South Florida, we're in the midst of the berry season for sure, and what better way to express the summer...than, to make all the light salads, and the berry and fruit based desserts.

Just this past Sunday, it was a beautiful and sunny morning...as I was reading the Sunday Palm Beach Post, sipping my coffee, I happen to notice in their Dash magazine, which we get once a month, and the Parade magazine every Sunday...either way, they both contribute seasonal recipes once a month!
With all the cookbooks, and I mean...tons of them at my daughter's house, plus my own, and all the recent cooking magazines, collected recipes...and the Internet...whewww...sheesh; it's so hard to decide on something, other than a recipe 'hitting you in the face'...at the spur of the moment!

(notice, how the first photo I took indoors with natural light...and the second, I 'staged it outside in the glorious sun light...well, not directly, but knowing in 2hrs the clouds will cover the skies, and the 'downpour' of rain will begin...non-stop. The swimming pool is practically overflowing, and the 'self cleaning vacuum for the pool 'konked out'...sigh!

All I can tell you that this is the best dough I have stumbled upon for fresh fruit based pies, tarts, or a
'free form' galette which is the easiest to make...it has the zest of 1 lemon, and also the juice of the same lemon, after you used the zest, and add the juice to the dough.

Berry Galette 

by: Dash

Ingredients

• Juice and zest of ½ lemon (I used 1 whole)
• 1⅓ cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, divided (I used 1 1/2 cups)
• ½ tsp kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1 stick (½ cup) plus 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I used sea salt)
• 2 Tbsp sugar, plus 1 tsp for sprinkling
• 1 lb strawberries, hulled and halved
• 1 heaping cup blueberries (about 6 oz)
• 1 large egg white

  Directions

• Combine lemon juice with enough ice water to make ¼ cup lemon water. In bowl of a food processor, mix 1⅓ cups flour, ½ tsp salt, and lemon zest until combined. Add 1 stick butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-sized bits. Drizzle in lemon water and pulse until dough just comes together.
• Scrape dough onto a work surface, then press into a flat disk. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 450˚F. In a large bowl, whisk remaining 2 Tbsp flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, and a pinch salt. Add strawberries and blueberries and stir to thoroughly combine, scraping down sides with a rubber spatula.
• Place refrigerated dough on a lightly floured work surface. 
• Roll into a 12-inch round, then transfer to a parchment paper–lined rimmed baking sheet. Mound berry mixture in center, leaving a 2-inch border. Gently fold in crust, pleating edges to enclose. Whisk egg white with 1 Tbsp water, then brush egg mixture onto crust and sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp sugar.
• Transfer baking sheet to oven, lower heat to 425˚F, and bake until crust is golden, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes, then serve warm or at room temperature.

Blueberry Scones...Part 1, and Awards!

All right class...I hope you've done your homework, because I'm going to quiz you on it! I made these amazing and yummy scones, based on a recipe by my dear friend Emma, from Australia,@ Sunflower Days.

On her recent previous post, she made these incredible rustic raspberry scones, that caught my eye, and I simply fell in love with it. I mention to her on my comment, that I would like to make the scones, but I don't have raspberries, so she encouraged me to make it, even though I have blueberries...and mind you I had tons, and tons of it. If you shop it Costco, you know exactly the sizes their product come in. Well, the blueberries came in a huge plastic container that was 908 grams=32 ounces...how do I know how many ounces? ...it was written on the package, but I did my homework, knowing I have to do some converting the Metric measurement on
Emma's recipe. Click here, for the recipe, and click back to my blog for the measurement conversion.
I did the multiplication, just to prove a point, 908g. x .0353, and it's exactly 32 ozs.

Just when you thought you've seen really nice blueberry recipes...check out my friends, Brenda's and Kathy's amazing...
 Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake ...@Brenda's Canadian Kitchen
 Blueberry Pound Cake... @ Bakeaway With Me

Here's the Conversion list again, just in case you need it!

ounces to grams: multiply ounce figure by 28.3 to get number of grams
grams to ounces: multiply gram figure by .0353 to get number of ounces
pounds to grams: multiply pound figure by 453.59 to get number of grams
pounds to kilograms: multiply pound figure by 045 to get number of kilograms
ounces to milliliters: multiply ounce figure by 30 to get number of milliliters.
cups to liters: multiply cup figure by 0.24 to get number of liters

In one day, I made three different recipes with my beloved blueberries, which is in the same group of my favorites of the berries, as strawberry, on top of the list, and blueberries close second, and of course raspberries, which are equally as good, but they are ever so expensive, just as the blackberries. I love them all, but I will stay with my first two choices to combine them in a wonderful dessert. Notice how flaky they are? I followed Emma's recipe to a "T" and wouldn't you know?...I actually added one egg, to 1 cup of the buttermilk, to have enough to brush this beautiful egg wash glaze on it!

Have you ever seen such perfect, gorgeous, huge, and juicy blueberries?...Costco has them, and then some!!!
Getting off the subject, now...the time has come once again, as in every year at this time; some of us get to go on vacations, while some of us stay here, now for the third year...boo, hoo...almost crying...well not exactly! I am so fortunate to be living in one of the most beautiful, tropical, and most desirable place in the world!!! We have sunshine every single day, have the most beautiful beaches, in-ground swimming pools, just about every one has a pool, all the best local eateries, that won't put a "hole" in your pocket...very affordable, the local fun outdoor restaurants that are right on the water, live outdoor theaters, most of them free, we have City Place, right here in West Palm Beach, where you can spend an hour, or spend the entire day...an outdoor mall, but of course better than
a mall, so leisurely, so magical, I've already posted several photos of it in my previous posts!

I mentioned about paying my awards forward on my last post, but as you all know, it takes such a long time to be linking the names of the blogger, and their blog to do all this. I came up with the perfect solution...since I've been
"milking" this last post...not so much for the attention and for more comments, although I must confess I do love all the comments...it certainly brightens my day to know that there are blogger friends out there who care. I try to do the same, as much as I can to keep commenting. So, I will not drag this on any longer.

Please collect your awards all of you lovely people...friends...from my previous post! All 30, which is perfect. You have two awards to take, copy, paste, or upload from the link and you know what to do...pass it on...pay it forward to whoever you wish to that are deserving of it. Thank you, thank you...from the bottom of my heart!!! Your names are all linked into the previous post, and I will remind you also, to let you know that I have an award for you! Now, wasn't this easy?

Please accept the awards...the first 30 commenter friends!!! 


...Gotta run back to my daughter's house to feed the doggies... since family is off to Italy...they just called to let me know they got there safely...yeayy...and of course I "broke down crying like a baby on the phone"...Bye!

Here's my little "misen plaz"...like I said, I added one egg to the buttermilk, which was abt. 1 cup, beat it with a small whisk, and added it to the flour, that had the sugar, and salt.

First, you add the little pea size pieces of cold butter, which in conversion is 2 ounces=half a stick of unsalted butter. Carefully crumble it in with a pastry blender, then blend in the liquid, but don't mix it too much. At the end, fold in the berries real carefully.

Make sure you use a large piece of parchment paper to lay your dough on. You don't need a rolling pin, just add a little more flour on the top of the dough, and form it into a circle, brush the remaining buttermilk with the egg on the top (opt.) ...slice it all the way through into eight equal slices...as you can see, I sliced two piece of blueberries right through and squished it, but that's OK.
I baked it in a preheated 425 degree F. oven for approx 25 minutes.

Just "feast" your eyes at these gorgeous scones. Bet it won't last you more than one day:DDD