This rustic, free-form tart is easily one of my favorite desserts to bake. If you don't like the fuss of baking projects, or even if you do, but you also appreciate simple elegance to highlight the best of the season's fruit, then this is your recipe.

If you've followed for a while, you know I don't necessarily love fussing about in the kitchen. But I am very passionate about how we all benefit from being connected with our food. To really savor food - to appreciate both the satisfaction and nourishment it contributes to daily life - we have to be willing to spend time with it; to put thought into what we want to cook, where we purchase it, and to carve out time to prepare and eat it.

I'm very aware that this is the simplest of concepts. But it's often the simple things - like slowing down to eat, without multi-tasking; getting enough sleep; tuning into our body, our emotions - that we're challenged to apply consistently in our lives because we underestimate their value!

All that to say, even though I have no intention to spend all day in the kitchen, there are several meal components I get deep gratification from making; a robustly-spiced dahl, a feed-me-for-days lentil salad, an assertive vinaigrette, a verdant green sauce, and yes, this galette dough. There's something about making a galette dough like the one in the recipe below that makes me feel very resourceful, accomplished, and efficient. Probably because it comes together easily, it's hard to mess up, and it's so good.

Rhubarb and strawberries are still hanging on at our farmer's market. I like the sweet-sour blend as the strawberries cut through the tart rhubarb. But as noted below, almost any seasonal fruit can be used. Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Galette

Serves 4-6
Notes: Any fruit can be a filling for a galette. Aim for approximately 1 1/2 pounds (689 gr) of fruit for one galette. Consider how much juice the fruit will give off and the amount of sugar needed. For example, berries, rhubarb and apricots give off a good amount of liquid, so the middle layer in the recipe is needed to absorb the juice. For a fuss-free dessert, consider leaving skins on apples, pears and stone fruit. For fruit other than berries, cut into 1/3 inch (.8 cm) thick slices, a little thinner for apples. Apricots and small plums can simply be halved, pits removed.

Galette Dough

1/4 cup (60 ml) ice water
1 cup (126 gr) whole spelt flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
6 Tbsp. (85 gr) cold butter, cut into small cubes

Middle Layer

1 Tbsp. whole spelt flour
1 Tbsp. almond flour
2 Tbsp. sugar

Fruit Filling

4 smallish rhubarb stalks, sliced on a diagonal in 2 inch (5 cm) pieces
6-8 large strawberries, quartered
2 Tbsp. sugar

Roadmap: First prepare the dough, chill for at least an hour, roll out, assemble fruit, then bake.

Dough: Mix together flour, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Work the butter into flour mixture, using a pastry blender or your fingers (I always use my fingers), until dough becomes a mixture of well-blended flour and butter, and larger, unincorporated pieces of butter. (This irregularity makes the baked crust flaky!) Working quickly so as not to warm the butter too much, pour 3/4 of water over dough, while tossing dough with your hands or a fork. At this point the dough will look like a raggedy mess, with some parts wetter and more formed than others. Be gentle as you form the dough in a ball, adding just enough water to make a cohesive dough that will not crumble when rolling. It shouldn't be sticky. As soon as the dough begins to clump together, form into a ball, wrap in plastic and flatten into a disc. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Roll out: If dough's been chilling for several hours, remove from fridge 20 minutes before rolling; it should be malleable but not soft. Lightly flour a large surface and sprinkle a dusting of flour on the dough itself. Flatten dough more by using the palm of your hand or tapping across its surface with rolling pin. Roll out to 14 inches (35 cm) in diameter (1/8 in thick), starting from the center and applying even pressure with the rolling pin as you work toward the edges. Every so often, flip dough over and dust each side with flour if needed. Transfer dough to silpat or parchment paper-lined baking sheet. To transfer, I like to roll dough up over rolling pin and unroll on baking sheet.

Assemble middle layer. Mix flour, almond flour and sugar in a small bowl, then evenly distribute it over the rolled-out dough until you reach the final 2 inches of pastry.

Fruit filling: Arrange fruit over flour sugar mixture in overlapping concentric circles until you reach the final 2 inches of pastry. Make an outer rim of pastry by filling the boarder of exposed dough up and over itself at regular intervals, crimping and pushing it up against the fruit, so that it forms a narrow rope-like rim that will contain a filing of fruit. Sprinkle sugar evenly over fruit. Brush rim with melted butter or plant milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake: Bake in lower third of the oven for 40-50 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and the crust is well browned, with slightly caramelized edges. Immediately transfer galette to a cooling rack, using one or two large thin spatulas. (I usually use two, sliding each underneath both ends.) This prevents the galette from steaming and becoming soggy. Serve warm with ice cream, coconut cream or whipped cream.

*Slightly adapted from Alice Waters and shared as Fruit Galette in Always Home by Fanny Singer.

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