Around My French Table (89 page)

TO MAKE THE GALETTE:
Whisk the flour and baking powder together.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and salt and beat for another 2 minutes, or until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the egg and mix for 2 minutes more. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the flour mixture, and mix only until it is blended—you'll have a very soft dough.

Working with a rubber spatula, give the dough a few turns to make sure you've picked up all the dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl, then scrape the dough onto a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap. Press down on the dough to form it into a disk, wrap it well, and chill it for at least 3 hours.
(The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

When you are ready to bake the galette, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9- to 9½-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

To get the dough going, put it between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap and roll it into a circle. If it's too difficult to roll—it's soft and it has a tendency to break—skip the rolling part and go directly to the patting part: Put the dough in the center of the tart pan and pat and press it into an even layer. Don't press the dough up the sides of the pan—you want as flat a surface as you can get. Place the pan on the baking sheet.

Bake the galette for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the edges come away from the sides of the pan; if you press the galette gently, it won't feel completely firm, but that's just fine. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let the galette rest for 3 minutes or so, then invert it onto another rack, invert again onto a rack so that it's right side up, and let cool to room temperature.

JUST BEFORE YOU'RE READY TO SERVE, TOP THE GALETTE:
Put the galette on a flat serving plate and spoon over as much lemon curd as you'd like, spreading it in swirls but leaving a little border around the edge bare (the curd will spread when you cut the base). If you're using strawberries, hull them, leave them whole or slice them in half, and arrange attractively over the curd. If you've got raspberries or blueberries or a mélange, scatter the berries over the curd or arrange them neatly in pretty circles.

If you want to give the galette a little glaze, warm the currant jelly with a tiny splash of water until it liquefies (you can do this in a microwave oven or a saucepan). Either drizzle the glaze over the berries—this is my preferred technique—or use a pastry brush or feather to paint the berries with the jelly.

If you haven't glazed the berries, you might want to give them a dusting of confectioners' sugar just before you bring the galette to the table.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
Cut the galette into wedges and serve as is—nothing more is needed.

STORING
You can make the sablé dough up to 3 days ahead and keep it well wrapped in the refrigerator, and you can bake the galette a day or two ahead and keep it at room temperature. (I put it back in the tart pan and cover the pan with foil.) However, once you put the curd over the galette and top it with berries, it's best to serve it quickly. If you have to, you can keep the finished galette in the refrigerator for an hour or two, but the base will soften a bit.

BONNE IDÉE
Sablé Breton Cookies.
Increase the amount of flour to 1¼ cups, decrease the butter to 8 tablespoons (1 stick), and use 2 large egg yolks instead of the egg. When the dough is mixed, it will be much firmer than the galette dough. Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a log, to make slice-and-bake cookies, or pat the halves into disks, to make cut-out cookies. Either way, wrap the dough and chill it for at least 6 hours, or for up to 3 days.

When you are ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. If you've made logs, slice the dough ⅓ inch thick. If you've got disks, let them stand just until you can roll the dough out, then roll it to about ¼ inch thick. (Thicker is better than thinner here.) Cut out the cookies and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake them, one sheet at a time, for 11 to 14 minutes, or until they are firm but not browned. Allow them to rest on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then transfer them to racks to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough. I usually cut out cookies with a 2-inch-diameter fluted cutter and get between 24 and 30 cookies (including cookies cut from rerolled scraps).

T
HE INSPIRATION FOR THIS TART COMES
from one that the chocolatier Christian Constant made for the world-famous designer Sonia Rykiel. In Paris, Madame Rykiel is celebrated almost as much for being a founding member of Le Club des Croqueurs de Chocolat (The Chocolate Connoisseurs' Club)—an exclusive association with strict membership rules and delicious meetings—as she is for creating coveted clothing. Being a friend of Rykiel and knowing of her love of both chocolate and bananas, Constant created a stunning tart for her that was filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache and topped with concentric circles of sliced bananas. It's a beauty and a recipe I've played with over the years. This rendition is a double-the-pleasure tart: both the filling and the crust are chocolate. (I use a chocolate shortbread cookie dough as a crust.) The bananas appear twice as well—in M. Constant's original sunburst topping and, caramelized in butter and sugar, scattered over the crust and covered with the ganache, only to be revealed with the first slice.

For a completely different way to enjoy the ganache in this tart, see Bonne Idée for a Chocolate Nutella Tart.

TO MAKE THE CARAMELIZED BANANAS:
Line a plate with parchment paper. Cut the banana into ⅛-inch-thick slices—it's nice to cut on the bias—and toss the slices with lemon juice to keep them from blackening.

Put a large skillet—nonstick is perfect—over high heat and toss in the butter. When it melts and starts to bubble, add the bananas, turning them so that they're coated with butter. Sprinkle the sugar over the bananas and cook, still over high heat, turning, until they're golden and caramel-coated on both sides. Transfer the bananas to the parchment-lined plate and pat them gently on both sides with paper towels to remove any excess butter. Cool to room temperature.
(The bananas can be caramelized a couple of hours ahead and kept at room temperature.)

TO MAKE THE BITTERSWEET GANACHE:
Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan, then pour it over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for 30 seconds or so, then, with a whisk or spatula, gently stir the chocolate and cream together: the best way to do this is to stir in small circles, starting at the center of the bowl and working your way out in increasingly larger circles. Stir gently, and when the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter, piece by piece.
(The ganache can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months; reheat gently in a microwave before proceeding.)

Arrange the caramelized bananas in an even layer over the bottom of the crust, then pour over the ganache. Hold the tart pan with both hands and rotate it lightly from side to side to encourage the ganache to even out, then slide the tart into the fridge to set the ganache, 30 to 60 minutes.
(You can refrigerate the tart until serving time; just be certain to cover it once the chocolate has set.)

TO MAKE THE TOPPING:
Bring the apricot jam to a boil in a small saucepan or in a microwave oven.

Peel the bananas and cut them on the bias into slices that are a scant ¼ inch thick. Toss them lightly with just the slightest bit of lemon juice—the juice will keep them from blackening, but you don't want them to be so wet that they dribble on the ganache. Arrange the banana slices in concentric circles over the top of the tart—start at the outer edge and slightly overlap the slices in a circle, then continue building concentric circles, having each circle slightly overlap its neighbor. Brush the bananas with a thin coating of the hot jam, glazing them evenly. Allow the glaze to cool and set.

When you're ready to serve, remove the sides of the pan and slide the tart off the bottom of the pan (if you can't do this easily, skip it), and slice.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
The tart can be served as soon as the glaze cools, but I prefer it at cool room temperature, which is when you get the best contrast between the cookie crust and the velvety ganache. It's also superb cold, and since chocolate melts at body temperature, it won't stay cold or firm for long.

STORING
The tart should be eaten the day you make it, but you can prepare the caramelized bananas a couple of hours ahead. You can also prepare the ganache ahead: It can be packed airtight and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 3 months. (Thaw in the container overnight in the fridge.) Reheat the ganache gently in a microwave oven before pouring it into the crust.

BONNE IDÉE
Chocolate Nutella Tart.
The inspiration for this tart comes from the famous Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, who makes a baked ganache tart with a hidden layer of Nutella beneath the chocolate. You can get that taste combination by spreading ⅔ cup Nutella over the bottom of the baked tart shell and chilling the tart for about 1 hour, then pouring over the ganache and allowing it to set as directed. In the original, the tart is topped with coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts, a key ingredient in Nutella. Since both Nutella and chocolate are so good with bananas, you might want to finish this tart with the bananas too.

I
DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THIS TART
hasn't become more popular here—I it's simple, creamy, slightly tangy, and much like our own beloved cheesecake. Baked in a shortbreadlike tart shell and traditionally studded with plump raisins, the filling puffs, then forms a thin layer that almost melds with the crust. A mixture of cottage cheese and sour cream whirred together gives you the same smoothness and zest as the traditional fromage blanc.

This recipe comes from the notebook my friend Alice Vasseur kept when she was seven years old and taking after-school classes at Le Cordon Bleu.