I wish I had made these galette’s for my besties bridal shower over the weekend, but when you are hosting, decorating and planning (even when there is three of you) sometimes you gotta opt for the easier recipe of rice krispie’s shaped into hearts and dipped in pink white chocolate. Plus rice krispie’s are kinda her thing, and it was kinda her day, so you know! Although I do know she would have loved these too, so I think a galettes eating, movie watching night will be in our future. Her celebration of love bridal shower, turned out absolutely gorgeous. One of my other bestie’s raided her Mother-in-law’s garden (which by the way is stunning, a dreamy oasis that you just want to curl up in with the afternoon sun, a good book and cup of tea to admire and ponder and inhale the fresh flowery air around) and we were able to do the majority of our decorating with fresh flowers; hydrangeas the size of our heads in tones of purple (her favourite colour) and white, perfectly blossomed tri coloured roses, spiky but beautiful long stemmed something’s (I don’t know all my flower/garden terms quite yet so bear with me) that hurt like a mother when touched but added the most luxurious ombre effect to the bouquets. And then my ever so meticulous, patience of a cat, crafting queen bestie (there are four of us) made tissue paper poms poms in purple, white and gold.

It was all very simple but intrinsically classy and just enough. Plus I mean the food is décor in itself. Grandma (I call her Grandma, Grandma and she used to call my Grandma, Grandma, it’s like that) made enough food for the entire Canadian armed forces. We also each made a dish, her Mom baked and ordered charcuterie platters, and Auntie’s brought some punch, although Grandma’s was the biggest hit, that lady can make a mean punch.

My best friend and I have been friends since we were 15; she was actually the very first person I met when I first moved to Victoria in the middle of grade 9. I remember her big bright, light up a room smile and not so quiet, you know she is there but in the sweetest way demeanour. We met in art class, although I wasn’t doing art I was doing Science, it was all very confusing and needless to say I still don’t think I ever finished grade 9 Science yet I graduated, humph go figure!

When I was supposed to be filling test tubes with weird smoky liquids I was chatting with what would be my future sister (hence the she calls my Grandma, Grandma and vice versa for all relatives) the one who walks into my parents’ house and goes straight to the fridge like any child does when they go “home”, she moseyed her way into my family as if she was always a piece of our puzzle, whether we knew that piece was missing or not it would have been filled by her no matter what our say would have been, and no one is my family would deny that fact. She is and always will be the one.

We didn’t actually become full on bff’s, besties, f4ever, sisters, trouble makers, whatever you want to call us until we were around 17, just before we graduated. But since then we have never looked back, expect this one time we both got mad at each other, for reasons we don’t even fully remember anymore and didn’t talk for a year, yeah there was that time but other than that she is my other hip.

Ok enough about her I could go on and on but you are really here for the galettes so let it be.

These might be the best thing I have baked in a serious while. Don’t get taken back by making pastry, it is actually really easy and this recipe inspired by A Couple Cooks pastry is fool proof! Plus it really does taste that much better than store bought, it’s the love that goes into it through the kneading, love makes everything taste better.

The filling was me playing around inspired through my own taste buds, hoping for the best.

This vanilla cream cheese though, I even shocked myself with how well it turned out. The entire package isn’t too sweet, as I never make anything all that sweet and has a nice tang from the lemon juice and zest. They are presented beautifully and it will look like you spent hours upon hours slaving away just to impress, when it all comes together in a mere one hour, if that.

I picked the blackberries fresh off the bush in front of our house, actually it is a random few branches of blackberries growing through our main hedge that our landscaper wanted to get rid of but I sternly said “umm no” and so happy that I did, as it actually gives us loads of berries I can pick in my pj’s! I mean it really doesn’t get better.

blackberry vanilla bean cream cheese galettes

pastry

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp turbinado sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ tsp Himalayan salt

11 tablespoons unsalted butter

5-7 tablespoons cool water

Blackberries

2 cups of fresh blackberries

¼ cup honey

juice of half a lemon

4 tsp cornstarch

zest of one lemon

pinch of Himalayan salt

Vanilla Cream Cheese:

1 cup cream cheese

scraped seeds of one vanilla bean

2 tbsp pure vanilla extract

1-2 tbsp of honey

1 egg yolk

1 egg whisked for pastry wash

directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking pans with parchment paper. Set aside

pastry

In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt and the baking powder. Slice the butter into pieces and then cut it into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or like me your fingers until a coarse meal texture is obtained.

Spoon 5 tablespoons of cool water over the flour, mixing gradually with a fork until the dough sticks together. You can add additional water by the tablespoon until the dough comes together but is not too sticky, or alternatively if it is too sticky already add a little bit more flour until you get the right consistency, i.e. not sticky. Form the dough into 4 balls.

Wrap the pastry balls in saran wrap and place them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

blackberries

In a small bowl lightly mix together the blackberries, honey, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest and place in the fridge.

vanilla cream cheese

In a standing mixer add the cream cheese, vanilla bean, vanilla extract, honey and egg yolk and mix on medium/high until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Set aside

putting them together

Once the pastry has set in the fridge, flour a flat clean surface. Coat your rolling pin in a little extra flour, place one ball of dough in the middle of the floured surface and roll it evenly from the center to the edge, until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick and around 8-10 inches in diameter (this does not have to be exact). Place the rolled out dough on the parchment lined baking sheet.

Scoop ¼ of the cream cheese mixture into the middle of the first rolled dough and spread out, leaving about 1 inch from the edge of the dough not covered (this is what you will fold over), then top with ¼ of the blackberry mixture, evenly disbursing them on top of the cream cheese.

Fold the sides of the galette over the cream cheese and blackberries, covering the mixture by one inch. Wash the top of the pastry with the pre whisked egg wash and do this same process with the remaining balls of dough.

I highly recommend making sure to fill each galette on the parchment paper as moving them afterwards can be quite messy.

Sprinkle the pastry and top of the galette with a little more turbinado sugar.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until the blackberries are starting to bubble. Cool for 5 minutes on the pan and then move them to a cooling rack.

Serve with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream!