BA Bake Club - Tiny Tomato Galettes

I've never been much of a baker. I'm a passably good free-wheelin' cook. Recipes are more like "inspiration," and even when I follow one, I often go rogue based on what I do or don't like, what I've got on hand, or simply the vibe I'm going for.

So I've been listening to the BA Bake Club podcasts, but mostly because they're interesting, educational, and entertaining. Not because I'd ever actually want to bake anything.  OK, maybe the Lemon Bars.  But May was a busy month, and I didn't even know they were doing lemon bars.

When I found out June's bake was a tomato galette, though, I got a little excited. I do love a good cooked tomato, and I often make a tomato cobbler in the summer. My pastry skills, however... meh. It's not for lack of trying, but honestly, I've never managed to produce a pastry that's remarkably better than the grocery store kind you just unroll and pretend you made yourself.

Still, I was determined to give this one a try.  As always, I began with confidence and high hopes.

I measured precisely. I let the butter and vinegar water hang out in the freezer while I got organized. I suppressed my fear that the dough was too dry. It was raining, and I figured that would somehow help.  Even so, I added more water than the recipe advised and then forced myself to stop while I still thought the dough was dry.

Spoiler alert: it was not.

I made exactly ONE substitution: Aleppo pepper. Ever since I discovered this pepper (thanks to this glorious recipe), I rarely use black pepper anymore. I loved the little red flecks in the dough. It partially dissolved into the butter and got all smeary and pretty. I even got out a ruler to form my dough block for chilling.

It was beautiful.

Things began to go off the rails when I rolled out the dough.

My printer had cut off a critical line of the recipe:

"Unwrap dough and cut in half..."

Yeah. That would've been useful.

Instead, I rolled the entire block. When it reached the advised dimensions, it was still absurdly thick. That's when I pulled up the recipe online and realized my mistake.

No problem, I thought. I can recover. I'll just roll the whole thing out.

Narrator: She could not.

Rolling that much dough evenly is apparently a skill.  Especially as it warms up. Some sections were thick, some were alarmingly thin, and I knew this would be a problem.

Naturally, I ignored it and carried on.

One thing I really enjoyed was using fresh herbs from my garden. Being in Texas, we get approximately fourteen minutes each year when herbs are at their peak, and this felt like an excellent
use of them.

Eventually I cut six very inconsistent rounds and smooshed the remaining dough back together for re-chilling. That second chill took forever. Apparently dough has trust issues once you've put it through that much trauma. 😅

My garlic cloves were enormous, so I grated five instead of eight and ended up with more than enough garlic. I spread the filling onto my wonky rounds, brushed on the egg wash, and started pleating the edges.

This is where the inconsistent dough thickness came back to bite me in the butt.

But still, I persisted.

I am, after all, a peasant cook. I make rustic food. "Rustic" is often just a more socially acceptable way of saying "well, that's not perfectly symmetrical."

I sliced and salted some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, setting aside the smaller pieces for some as-yet-undetermined future purpose.

I was also prepping another recipe at the same time and had red onions marinating in EVOO, balsamic, garlic, and herbs. A few slivers found their way onto each tomato.

No regrets.

Four galettes went into the freezer (sans tomatoes) for future use. Two went into the refrigerator for another day soon. I love a recipe where some or all of the work can be done ahead and frozen.

The remaining two went into the oven for dinner.

The baking time was perfect. They definitely benefit from a little cooling time. Future Me may brush the tomatoes with a touch of olive oil before baking, but honestly, that's a minor tweak.

They were a hit.

The pastry was crisp, flaky, and ridiculously flavorful. The filling was warm, creamy, and downright divine. The tomatoes softened and sweetened without losing their acidity or structure.

This one is definitely going into the rotation.

And now that I've learned the important lesson of dividing the dough before rolling it, I won't be making that mistake again.

This will be a fantastic recipe for entertaining because it looks impressive, but so much of the prep and assembly can be done in advance, little by little, whenever you have time.

Thank you, BA Bake Club, for a beautiful recipe.  And for proving that even a stubborn, free-wheelin' cook can occasionally be convinced to bake.