Fig Galette. Is it good? Oh yeah, it's good.

I recently discovered figs grow pretty well around here.  I plan on getting a tree next year, but in the mean time I bought a pound of black figs last night from Trader Joe's.  I ate a few of them, but being from TJ's, they weren't excellent produce.  (There are a lot of things I like about that place, but their produce is often not great.  You know this to be true.)  When you have non-excellent produce, a good solution is to just put that into a recipe of some kind.  This often is true with dry-ish apples, which I like to put into a pie.

I recalled seeing some kind of fig dessert in a Martha Stewart book I browsed recently.  (Don't worry, friends, I'm not getting the urge to declare my crafts 'A good thing' or serve brunch in Maine or whatever) In the spirit of adventure, I looked up recipes for galettes, which is basically an easier version of a pie.  Very non-intimidating.

Do you have a pound of figs and some ambition?  The recipe, which is a blend of a bunch of online recipes, is after the lovely pictures.

Instagram?  Nope, steam on my lens.

Delicious served with a helping of chevre. 

Fig Galette

1 single pie crust
1 1/4 c flour
1/4 c vegan margarine (this makes it very easy to roll out, as I learned)
1/4 c. butter
2-3 tbs water
Add the flour, margarine, and butter into a stand mixer with a flat blade or food processor.  Mix until crumbly, then add the water until it's doughy.  More flour can be added for rolling.  Now you have a pie crust.  

-2 tbs Orange or Lemon Marmalade
-1lb of figs, sliced.  I only used about half a pound, but next time I will add more.
-Sliced blanched almonds
-honey
-Coarse Sugar
-Egg Glaze (I just used some eggwhite and water mixed)
-plain goat cheese

Roll out the pie crust.  Roughly 14 inches in diameter is good.  Mine are never very round, but try hard.

Spread the marmalade around the center, but leave a border for folding, about two inches.  If you're afraid of marmalade, don't worry.  The strength of it mellows during baking, and the flavor blends right into this recipe.

Arrange your sliced figs in a circle as close to one another as possible.  They're going to shrink and melt into a delicious figgy layer, so overlapping them slightly is a good idea.  Some people quarter them rather than slicing, but it's up to you.

Sprinkle the almonds around.  You can add as many or as few as you like, or leave them out.

Squeeze the honey to your taste on top of everything.  The marmalade will already make this pretty sweet, so honey is really for flavor.  We're also adding sugar to the crust so keep that in mind.

Now, fold the border towards the center, pleating it as you go around.  Use the egg glaze on the top of the crust, then sprinkle with the big sugar.  I like sugar in the raw a whole bunch.

Bake at 425 F for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375 and bake for 10 more minutes.  The crust will be brown, and some, if not all of the figs will look browned and caramelized.

Cool and serve with chevre, if that's your thing.  If not, it's still really delicious on it's own.  But do cool it, I can't be held responsible for your mouth.

Some of the galette recipes I looked at:

Simply Recipes.  They also have a recipe for a peach galette I'm going to try soon.

Fig and Raspberry Galette.  Sounds really good. I didn't make this because raspberry season is over.  I guess I forgot I have about four pounds of red raspberries in my freezer.