cremini mushroom & collard green whole wheat galettes

Note: This post was previously published here as a part of my freelance work.

Pie crust is one thing many cooks strive to perfect in their lifetimes. It’s finicky and temperamental, but when you get it right, that flaky melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness makes it all worthwhile. Add in the desire to make it wheat, and you throw a whole new curve ball into the game. 

Here, I adapted a galette crust from the folks at Tartine, and filled it with delicious local cremini mushrooms, collard greens, leeks, tarragon, and horseradish quark. I love the Tartine books, but I will admit that they are not for beginners. Their methods get so precise, and often a little tool pretentious. Ultimately, they do know what they’re talking about though, and even if you don’t get each step precisely as they describe it, you still end up with something that’s pretty darn good. 

The meaty mushroom filling in these particular galettes sings tastefully against the nuttier whole wheat crust. Folded up into individual portions, they make a beautiful treat for guests. Serve them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and they will make sense. Deep into fall and heading into winter, they are a nice hearty treat.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 lb. unsalted butter

1 cup water

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

For the Egg Wash:

2 egg yolks

2 tbs half & half cream

For the Filling:

1 lb. cremini mushrooms, sliced

2 1/2 cups chopped collard greens

2 large leeks

2 lg garlic cloves, sliced thick

1/2 cup water

2 tbs chopped tarragon

2 tbs champagne vinegar

3 tbs horseradish quark

3 tbs coconut oil

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

For the Dough:

1. Slice butter into one inch cubes, dissolve salt in water, and stick everything into the freezer to chill for 10 minutes. Keep the water and the butter in separate dishes.

2. On a clean working surface, portion out your flours and mound them up into a square, about 1/3 inch thick. Don’t worry about throughly mixing the flours. It will inevitably happen once you get working.

3. Lay butter cubes evenly on top of the square, and sprinkle with some more flour. Using a floured rolling pin, begin to roll the butter until it warms up enough to make long little sheets. As you do this, intermittently scrape up the sides of your square to return it to the size you first began with. Repeat rolling and reshaping the square 3 or 4 times.

4. Now, make a whole in the middle of the dough, and fill it with the chilled salt water. Using a bench scraper, knife, or pastry blender, scrape the edges of the square into the center, cutting and mixing the water into the dough. It will start to look like a shaggy mess.

5. Shape the dough back into a square, and roll it out, so that it’s roughly 10 x 14 inches. Sprinkle with flour, fold in on itself, and re-roll 3 or 4 times.

6. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least one hour. I chilled mine overnight.

7. When you are ready to roll out the dough, cut it into 12 even squares. Flour your surface and roll each square into a circle that is about 1/8 inch thick. Trim edges to make it round when necessary. 

8. As you finish the circles, fold them into quarters, and set them aside on a lightly floured surface. Stick everything back into the fridge for at least 10 minutes of chilling once all are rolled out.

For the Egg Wash:

1. Whisk ingredients together & set aside.

For the Filling:

1. Cut leeks in half length-wise, turn, and continue to cut into 1/4 inch strips along the short direction.

2. Heat coconut oil in a large pot, and add leeks.

3. Once the leeks begin to sweat, add garlic and tarragon, then sauté for about 1 minute.

4. Add collard greens. Stir around for 1 minute, and then add water, keeping the heat high. Let steam for about 10 minutes

5. Add in the sliced mushrooms. Cook for another 10-15 minutes, until most of the liquid is cooked out.

6. Add vinegar, and cook for 1 more minute, then kill the heat, season, and let chill.

Assembly:

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. On a lightly floured surface, lay down your first circle of galette crust. Pile on filling, so that you have a 1 inch perimeter of crust, and so that it piles roughly 1/2 inch high.

3. Sprinkle with horseradish quark.

4. Fold the dough up around the edges, pressing it down to make sure that no liquid will escape.

5. Repeat until you’ve filled all of your galettes, You will probably have left over crust. This can be frozen and used at a later date.

6. Give your egg wash one last whisk, and then paint it overtop each galette, covering the crusts evenly.

7. Bake for 45-60 minutes, until lightly browned.

8. Serve warm.

carrot cake with espresso cream cheese frosting

I decided that for my dad's birthday I was going to make a family favorite: carrot cake. I had a bushel of purple carrots from my CSA and it was the perfect opportunity to put them to good use. You can't have carrot cake without cream cheese frosting, but - for this - plain cream cheese just seemed too boring. Espresso it would be! Look at me get my bake on ;).

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Greek yogurt

1/4 Cup Butter (Softened)

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1/5 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Grated Lemon Rind

2 Cups Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tbs Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Allspice

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 1/4 Cups Packed Shredded Carrot

1/4 Cup Lemon Juice

1 Handful Raisins

Icing:

8oz Cream Cheese

3 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/3 Cup Espresso

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F & grease a 10" round cake pan

2. Beat together butter, yogurt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time and beat in.

3. Stir in lemon rind & vanilla.

4. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. 

5. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the shredded carrot and raisins, stirring in with a wooden spoon.

6. Spread in you cake pan and bake for approx 50 minutes.

7. Let cake cool

8. Beat together icing ingredietns until you get a creamy, spreadable texture.

9. Frost your cake & decorate!