Pumpkin Galette
Pumpkin Galette
I thank Kristen Miglore and her Genius column for introducing me to Meta Given’s technique for reducing the moisture in canned pumpkin. This makes a thicker pumpkin puree that’s ideal for a less custardy, more purely pumpkin-y sort of filling in this double-crusted galette. While you can make it in any shape, it’s particularly autumnal fun to freehand it into a pumpkin shape (+ even the wonkiest pumpkin is a cute pumpkin)!
Makes one large pumpkin about 12 in / 30 cm wide
425 g / one 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
159 g / ¾ cup light brown sugar
14 g / 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
5 g / 1 teaspoon vanilla
7 g / 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
4 g / 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 g / ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 recipe Rough Puff Pastry, prepared, divided evenly in half, and chilled (recipe inside The Book on Pie or Food52)
64 g / 3 large egg yolks
egg wash, as needed for finishing
1. Make the filling: place the pumpkin puree in a medium pot. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until it appears dryer and darker in color, 12-15 minutes.
2. Transfer to a medium bowl and whisk in the sugar, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt and whisk well to combine. Cool to room temperature.
3. While the mixture cools, draw a pumpkin template on a piece of parchment paper (I just freehand it with a pencil as a slightly bottom heavy oblong shape with a little stem up top). Make the widest pat of the pumpkin about 12 in / 30 cm wide, it should be about 9 in / 23 cm tall (the stem can go up a little taller). Cut the stencil out to use as a guide.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the puff pastry to just larger than the stencil. Dock the pastry all over with a fork. Use the rolling pin to gently transfer the dough to a parchment lined baking sheet. Lay the stencil on top of the dough and use a paring knife to cut around it. Remove the excess dough. Place a piece of parchment on top of the dough.
5. Roll out the second piece of puff pastry to just larger than the stencil – don’t dock this portion of dough. Use the rolling pin to gently transfer the dough to a parchment lined baking sheet. Lay the stencil on top of the dough and use a paring knife to cut around it. Remove the excess dough. Place a piece of parchment on top of the dough. Cover the top dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
6. Whisk the egg yolks into the cooled pumpkin mixture and whisk well until smooth (the mixture should still be quite thick).
7. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Pull the parchment holding the plastic wrap covered piece of dough to the side of your work surface, leaving the uncovered pumpkin shape on the baking sheet. Spoon the pumpkin filling into the center of the dough, and spread evenly over the dough, leaving the outer 1 in / 2 cm (and the stem portion) uncovered.
8. Brush the exposed dough with egg wash, then gently unfurl the undocked portion of dough over the filling, stretching the top portion slightly as needed to match it up to the edges of the base. Crimp the dough all the way around with a fork, pressing firmly to seal the top and bottom together.
9. Preheat the oven to 400°F/204°C with a rack toward the center of the oven, (preferably with a baking steel or stone on it).
10. Egg wash the surface of the dough (leave the crimped edges un-touched). Use the tip of a paring knife to gently score the surface of the dough (see page xxx) in curved shapes from the stem end to the base, imitating the ridges of a pumpkin (I place mine about 1 ½ in / 4 cm apart). If desired, you can add alternate / additional decorative score marks to create different effects (see note).
11. Transfer the pastry to the oven and bake until deeply golden brown, 40-45 minutes. If portions of the pastry are browning more quickly than others, cover them with aluminum foil for the duration of baking. Cool completely before slicing and serving.
Note:
Get creative with your score marks. You can define the stem by applying diagonal score marks close together. The same technique works between the score marks applied in step 8. You can alternate the direction of the diagonal marks between each of the initial score marks to help add dimension. Or, you can just add cinnamon sugar or turbinado to the top of the whole pie!