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A traditional summer galette made with thinly sliced ham, gruyère
cheese, eggs and shortcrust pastry. Mix in a generous helping of herbs
and you have a delicious galette which can be eaten hot or cold.
KEY POINTS
Preparation:
Cooking Time:
How Difficult
Difficult but see cook's
notes below
Freeze?
No
Servings
4 to 6
COOK'S NOTES ON HAM AND GRUYÈRE CHEESE GALETTE
If you are looking for perfectly round and immaculately sealed pastry
then this is difficult to achieve and you need to be an experienced
cook. If however you are looking for a delicious galette with some minor
imperfections in the pastry then this dish is only moderately difficult.
This recipe is an adaptation from a Telegraph magazine recipe. In that
article they show only one picture and that is a mock up of the finished
galette. They describe it as "easy to make"!. It's a fib, we promise
you!
However, with our expert advice and step by step pictures (plus a short
video) we have made the preparing and cooking of this galette
considerably easier.
Give it a go, forget the looks and simply enjoy the taste of this
delicious galette. We would strongly suggest though that you read the
entire recipe instructions before starting to make the cheese and ham
galette.
This galette is delicious both hot and cold. For serving cold simply let
it cool then cover and place in the fridge. It is delicious for
breakfast and makes ideal picnic food.
Ingredients
How Much
Ready made shortcrust pastry
500g / 1lb 1½oz
Medium eggs
7
Gruyère Cheese
200g / 7oz
Thin sliced ham
120g / 4oz
Butter
3 heaped teaspoons
Chives (chopped)
1½ heaped tablespoons
Basil (chopped)
1½ heaped tablespoons
Parsley (chopped)
1½ heaped tablespoons
WHAT SPECIAL KITCHEN EQUIPMENT? Non-stick baking paper.
30cm / 12in square baking tray (or larger).
Rolling pin.
Lots of surface space!
CLICK ANY PICTURE ON
THIS PAGE TO ENLARGE IT
PREPARATION Finely chop the herbs.
Roughly chop the ham.
Grate the cheese.
Break six (not all seven) eggs into a bowl. Mix with a fork until white
and yolk are just combined. Stir in the herbs.
VIDEO ON
HOW TO "CRIMP" THE PASTRY EDGES OF YOUR GALETTE
METHOD
Add one teaspoon of butter to a frying pan which has a base of approximately
20cm / 8in diameter. Turn the heat to medium and wait till the butter has
melted.
Pour roughly a third of the egg mixture into the frying pan and cook
for two minutes until the egg has set, don't stir. Slide out the thin pancake
onto a plate.
Repeat the above to cook two more thin omelettes.
TIP
We suggest that you cover the first omelette with baking paper
then slide out the second omelette onto the paper. Do the same
for the third omelette. You can pour the omelettes onto separate
plates but your kitchen will soon become cluttered when you
start to roll out the top and bottom pastry layers.
Turn on the oven now to 200°C / 400°F / Gas mark 6 to pre-heat it in
time for cooking.
Take the shortcrust pastry from the fridge and cut it in half. Roll out each
half of pastry so that it is 30cm / 12in in diameter.
We used a non-stick pastry mat placed on a table. They are ideal for this
purpose and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. They also have pre-drawn circles
so that you can get the size exactly correct.
Click here if you
would like to buy our top quality, silicone, non-stick pastry mat.
Transfer one of the rolled out pastry sheets onto some non-stick baking paper.
See the two boxes below for an easy way to do this with minimum tearing of the
pastry.
Now place one of the omelettes onto the pastry followed by a third of
the grated cheese and ham. Repeat the omelette, cheese and ham layers twice
more.
The next step is transfer the second sheet of pastry onto the top of the
galette. The easy way to transfer delicate sheets of pastry is shown in the box
to the left and below.
First place the rolling pin a few inches from one edge
of the pastry. Draw up the pastry over the top of the rolling pin then simply
gather up the remaining pastry by rolling the rolling pin.
Using the remaining beaten egg brush some egg round the edges of the bottom
layer of pastry.
Lay the rolled up pastry over the filling by simply unrolling
it from the rolling pin.
That's how the professionals do it and it's so easy.
Gently but firmly press the edges of the top pastry layer onto the bottom layer
so that they seal together.
You could simply cut the sealed edges neatly so they form a tidy circle but it's
best to crimp the edges to give a professional look to your galette.
Rather than explain how to this, it's easier to show you a short video. Click
on the YouTube video above for a clear demonstration.
Brush some of the remaining egg over the top layer of pastry so that it browns.
Place the galette (with the underlying baking paper) onto a baking tin and place
in the pre-heated oven for around 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.
Turn the cooking galette round after ten minutes to ensure
it is evenly cooked. Take a look at it after 20 minutes to check how browned
the pastry is.
