Strawberry and Pineapple Galette

I am not a cake fanatic, I don’t mind eating dessert and usually, the desserts I do make are things that have been tried and tested and things I really love to eat that I would actually go all the way to make them. When Grapefruit made my sausages and potatoes I decided to give her galette a try, well not exactly the same thing but something like it. I was in an experimenting mood:). I don’t mind fruit deserts, it is making cakes and bread that’s really not my thing. I took the pastry recipe from Martha Stewart's plum galette. I noticed that in galettes you use a jam base and add something crunchy like nuts but since I didn’t have any I crushed some coconut cookies.

 

Why coconut cookies? Pineapple and coconut sounds very tropical. I had some leftover low-sugar strawberry preserve my dad used to eat for breakfast while he was here, so I used that. I think she used marmalade. 

 For the pastry: 

1 ½ cups plain flour

 ½ cup cold butter or margarine, grated 

 2 ½ tbsps sugar 

 A pinch of salt

 Icey cold water 

 1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl, add the butter or margarine and mix so it becomes like bread crumbs, add sugar and start to knead and get them to come together, use very little water and don’t over mix( according to most recipes for flakey pastry ) Let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes 

 Filling : 

 1-2 tbsps strawberry jam

 4 coconut cookies, crushed 

175 g fresh pineapple, cut into small pieces ( u can be creative, ) 

1 tbsp brown sugar

 6-8 strawberries, hulled cut into quarters

 1 tsp of flour 

 1. Mix the sugar, pineapple, and strawberries together. Stir in the flour. Set aside.

 2. Take the pastry out and here is a trick I saw on a cooking show. Roll your dough on a lightly floured piece of aluminium foil or baking paper. Roll to a rough circle, about ½ cm in thickness. Take the foil and turn it upside down onto a baking sheet, a greased tray of course. Gently ease the rolled dough onto the tray. Better than breaking it up while trying to transfer it by hand, and I am usually very clumsy when it comes to desserts. 

 3. Spread 2 tbsp of jam on the middle leaving 1 - 1 ½ inch border clear.

4. Sprinkle with crushed coconut cookies. Then add the pineapple and strawberries on top.

  5. Fold the edges in and crimp as you go.

 

Brush with some egg wash on the pastry, sprinkle some sugar on the pastry if you like, and bake in a preheated oven at about 200 degrees Celcius, that’s about 375 F for about an hour or so, till nice and golden. Ps, measurements are somewhat a bit off the mark I think, The Pastry was quite crumbly. Best eaten warm maybe with some ice cream or custard.