Goat Cheese Caramelized Shallot Galette

My mom loves goat cheese and caramelized shallots so I thought why not just combine them into one delicious galette. Especially with Mother's Day coming up, this is a perfect gift! To be honest, I'm not a big fan of goat cheese myself but even I'll eat this it's so good! What I love about galettes is that they don't need to be pretty and well trimmed like pies do. Their charm comes from how rustic they look.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups flour, any type works but I used 1/2 c All Purpose and 1 c Whole Wheat which gives a nice nuttiness
• 1 stick butter, chilled
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, if using salted butter reduce to 1/2 t
• 1 egg yolk, save white for filling
• 7 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling:

• 10.5 oz goat cheese
• 1 whole egg and the white leftover from the crust
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 big shallot
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 big drizzle of olive oil, or fat
• 1 teaspoon coconut sugar, or any other sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2-4 spring onions

First, measure out your ingredients so you can work quickly and the butter won't get too warm.

Cut the fresh out of the fridge butter into small cubes.

Put your flour(s) in the bowl of a food processor along with your salt and pulse a few times to combine. Then put in your butter and pulse just until the lumps of butter are pretty small and the flour looks like gravel.

It's important not to pulse for too long since clumps of butter are actually what make the crust so flaky. They create small pockets of steam in the oven which means lots of flaky layers!

Next, whisk together the egg yolk with the 7 tablespoons of ice water. Drizzle this over the flour butter mixture and pulse a few times.

Add more water or flour as needed until you get a ball that mostly holds together and clears the sides.

Form it into a ball, flatten, and chill covered in the fridge while you make the filling.

Fun fact: shallots, garlic, and spring onions all belong to the allium family!

Thinly slice your shallot, roughly mince your garlic, and thinly slice your spring onions along a steep diagonal.

In a small saucepan, drizzle a big drizzle of olive oil. Combine, cover, and cook the shallot with the garlic over medium heat until they're starting to wilt and shrink, around 6 minutes. If the pan starts to dry up, add a splash of water because they can burn quickly.

Once they start to wilt, add your teaspoon of coconut sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of balsamic. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking for 15-20 minutes until they smell sweet and are very flexible.

While the shallots are cooking, combine the cheese, egg + white, and thyme in the food processor. There's no need to clean it after making the crust.

Pulse until smooth. It should have the consistency of a custard, slightly runny but still hold its shape.

Now would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once the shallots are nice and caramelized, remove your crust ball from the fridge.

Sprinkle your surface with flour (which I forgot to do but HIGHLY recommend ;) ) and roll the dough out into a 12 in. diameter circle. It's okay if it doesn't look perfect. In fact, that makes it look even more unique!

Pour the cheese mixture into the center of the dough leaving a 2 in. border. Pile on your caramelized shallots and garlic. Then, top with your sliced spring onions.

To fold the dough, take one side and fold it so the cheese filling goes right up to the crease. Then take the edge of the dough right next to where you just folded and fold that up. Keep folding along the rest of the circle until everything is folded up over the filling.

Sprinkle cornmeal on a lined baking sheet, then place your galette on the sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes.

The galette will be done when the crust is golden brown and the filling is set.

Let the galette cool on the sheet until you won't burn your tongue, then slice it up and enjoy!