This Peach and Thyme Galette is a delicious balance of sweetness and tang, wrapped in an unbelievably flaky, buttery pie crust, it’s a must try this spring!
Want to impress your friend group, partner, or hell, yourself?! Make this Galette! Galette is a rustic French cake made of pastry dough or bread. It is flat, round and perfect if you’re into a wabi-sabi-handmade-is-beautiful type of vibe, which is basically me always.
You can make Galette with all kinds of fruits, apple and peach are two of the most common ones that I see. You can even get crazy and make a Savory Galette if your heart and taste buds so desire! This is a Peach and Thyme Galette to celebrate the coming of the warm months!
Want more peach recipes?
Check out my Peach Cobbler Cheesecake Recipe!
How to make this Peach Thyme Galette
To make Galette you’ll need to start by making a flaky pie crust. I recommend making your pie dough the day before you want your Galette since it needs to chill for at least an hour.
Cut up the peaches and toss the slices with sugar, cinnamon, salt, cornstarch, a few thyme leaves and a dash of lemon juice
Roll out the chilled pastry dough into a roughly 12” circle. Place the fruit in the center of the circle randomly or decoratively. Make sure to leave a 2” ring of pastry dough to fold over.
Once the fruit is how you want it, fold over the outer 2” edge of pastry and brush with egg wash. Optionally, sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. Top with vanilla ice cream or serve with whipped cream or just enjoy it plain!
Can baking be therapeutic?
I often talk about baking being a therapeutic hobby but I’d like to share more about why I feel that way as well as how it can become a relaxing hobby for you!
When I bake, it’s my creative time. I may put on my favorite nostalgic movie or tv show in the background, or a Spotify playlist titled “French café” and leave my troubles behind.
Sometimes I pour myself a glass of wine and light a candle. Then, with the mood set, the mixing of batter, kneading of dough and smoothing of icing is my only care in the world.
When I say baking is therapeutic, sometimes people respond saying “not for me it isn’t!” I completely understand why someone might feel that way. There have been plenty of times where I spend hours on something only for it to fail or something breaks that shouldn’t or I forget to clean as I go and am left with a disastrous kitchen to clean.
So I should in reality, have a caveat to my “baking as therapy” claims…
Baking is therapy when you curate the experience to be relaxing.
How do you curate that relaxing experience for yourself, you ask?
How to make baking therapeutic…
- Prepare your mind–know that it’s okay if the cake doesn’t rise, or the butter wasn’t chilled enough. Shift your mindset from seeing your failures as mistakes to seeing them as opportunities for learning.
- Prepare your space–I cannot and will not bake on top of a messy kitchen. If I were to do this I would be starting from a place of stress! Take an extra 10 minutes to clean any dishes in the sink and wipe down the counters, this small effort will pay you back greatly in brain space and clarity.
- Clean as you go! I’ll tell you the one way to make baking stressful and tiresome, is to not clean as you go! After I use each ingredient that I no longer need, I put it away.
After each major step in the process, I wipe down the counters and put dishes that are no longer needed in the sink. If there is chill time or baking time I don’t sit, I do the cleaning then. Make this shift and you’ll really notice the difference!
By the way, this last tip really helped me when I was on The Great American Baking Show–and the crew that cleaned up behind us made a point to tell me that my workspace was always so clean they didn’t have much to do!
I would reply by saying “it’s how I stay sane in this tent!”
Additional suggestions:
*Maybe try printing off the recipe instead of looking at it on your phone, tablet or laptop and use this time to unplug from technology for a few hours
**Invite friends or family over to share your creation with you. Time spent with loved ones over food is a universally special experience
And that’s how I discovered baking for my mental health. If you try any of these suggestions, let me know how it went for you! I’m really invested in spreading this message to others in hopes that baking will enhance your lives more than it already does!
Happy Baking!
Peach and Thyme Galette
Ingredients
For the Pastry
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter cold, cut into cubes
- 2 Tbsp ice water
- 1 Tbsp vodka*
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp heavy cream
For the Filling
- 2 ripe peaches thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1 squeeze fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Instructions
For the Pastry
- In a food processor, pulse together 2 ½ cups of all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp of granulated sugar, and 1 tsp of salt until combined.
- Add 1 cup (2 sticks) of cold unsalted butter cut into cubes directly into the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Add 2 Tbsp of ice water and 1 Tbsp of vodka* and mix until the mixture comes together. Do not overmix.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured clean surface and bring it together with your hands. Form the dough into a round disc and wrap with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 400℉ (roughly 205℃).
- In a large bowl mix the peach slices, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp of salt, 1 Tbsp of cornstarch, 1 Tbsp of fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp of fresh lemon zest and a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice together until the fruit is well coated.
- On a floured surface, roll out the pastry into roughly a 12" circle leaving the edges rough. Gently transfer the pastry round onto a rimmed baking sheet fitted with parchment paper.
- Add the peach slices to the center of the pastry circle leaving a 2" border all around the fruit. You may add the fruit slices decoratively or randomly, whichever you prefer, as long as there is an even layer of fruit on the pastry round.
- Fold the outside edges of the dough over the filling (as exemplified in the photos above).
- Beat 1 egg and 1 Tbsp of heavy cream together and use a pastry brush to coat the crust generously with this egg wash. Sprinkle with course turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is a gorgeous golden brown.
- After you remove the galette from the oven, allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes before cutting and serving.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if desired! Enjoy!
[…] Peach and Thyme Galette […]