Hey friends! Happy weekend! How's your Summer been so far? I've been cooking up a storm and working on my blog biz non-stop. But thankfully my husband has been able to drag me away from my many screen-oriented activities so that I actually enjoy the beautiful, mild Virginia Summer we're having during evenings and weekends. I think if my gym didn't have a rooftop dipping pool I'd just stay in my AC cooled house 24/7. Like a nord princess, hiding from the Southern humidity. Thank goodness I live within walking distance of so many fun restaurants, vegan ice cream trucks and friends houses or, seriously, I would be even more of a workaholic hermit than I already am! I'm always trying to find that balance between working passionately on my projects (which is so fulfilling) and self-care, screen-free time. It's a work in progress! 

I'm really excited about the recipe I have for you guys today. It's a grain free coconut oil galette crust! It's the sort of versatile recipe you can mix-and-match to suit your pie cravings. It's so much easier than pie, especially if you follow my lead and do a store-bought jam filling.

If you're not super familiar with galettes, they're basically free-form pies made from a circle of dough that you fold inward over a sweet or savory filling. They're a whole hell of a lot less fussy than normal pies. They're like the messy-sexy, tousled, just-woke-up-like-this tomboy of the dessert world. Galettes DGAF. They is who they is. Cracks and folds and all. Now that's my kind of pie.

Now I know a whole lot more than your average Betty about gluten free/grain free baking. But I will always consider myself more of a cook than a baker at heart. Galettes are more my speed. And with this recipe -- which cooks and preps faster than a wheat-based galette -- I can throw a jammy dessert together pretty easily on the fly. 

The galette crust I've developed for you guys today is made with almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, coconut oil and an egg. It's very lightly sweetened with coconut sugar. It takes 14 minutes to bake up, which I think is pretty dang fast! I give it an egg-wash and a sprinkle of cane sugar before baking to make sure it looks extra pretty and has a crispy crunch on top -- also, cane sugar is mush prettier in photos so not gonna lie that went through my mind before making and photographing these. You could use coconut sugar or any other crystalline sugar you prefer on top. A brush of honey or jam over the crust would work well too as a sub for egg wash and sugar.

This recipe makes 4 5-6" galettes or... two 9" tart crusts! Ain't that dandy? Now you have a new go-to grain free tart crust too. I usually pre-bake this recipe as a tart crust before adding fillings, just to be sure the bottom cooks all the way through. So far I've done a vegan strawberry custard with whipped coconut cream on top. And on the savory side I've been loving throwing a layer of almond ricotta on the bottom and then topping it all off with a mound of sauteed mushrooms, summer squash and beets. 

For the filling on these blueberry lavender galettes I went all half-way-homemade and used a sugar free blueberry jam (this one) and then layered fresh blueberries over top. Before long it'll be so hot that the extra step of making pie filling is pretty much off the table for me (let's not turn on the range and the oven, for gods sake). So there ya have it, my little hack for making this dessert just a pinch simpler. 

You could do this exact same half-way-homemade hack with any jam and berry combo, from raspberry jam + fresh raspberries to blackberry jam + fresh blackberries etc. etc. Any sort of fruit preserve would be wonderful too. I've already made these with cherry preserves and mixed berry preserves and I'm definitely going to dry peach jam, black raspberry jam and apricot preserves. You can see from the odd-photo-out above (the one with cherries instead of blueberries) that the last time I made these galettes my folding technique improved a bit. :)

Anyhoozle, let me know what you guys think! And if you love this post, would you mind sharing it or leaving a comment? xoxo -- Renee

Grain Free Coconut Oil Galette Crust + Blueberry Lavender Galette

Author: Renee Byrd | Will Frolic for Food · Active prep time: 10 minutes · Inactive prep time: 30 mins · Cook time: 14 mins ·Makes 4 galettes or 2 9” tart crusts ·  PRINT THIS RECIPE · Tips: I used this refined sugar free jam for the filling. You could use any jam, preserve or pre-cooked pie filling recipe that you like. You can also use ghee instead of coconut oil if you like. To powder the chia I use a spice grinder or the small cup on my nutribullet to get it nice and fine.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups natural fine blanched almond flour
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds, powdered
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg white for wash
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons coconut oil, room temp but solid
• 4 tablespoons cold plant milk or cold water
• 1 egg (for an egg wash) + cane sugar or coconut sugar for sprinkling over top
• 1 10 oz jar blueberry jam (~
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 tsp lavender flowers

Steps:

1. To a food processor fitted with an S blade, add the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, sea salt, powdered chia seed and coconut sugar. Pulse to combine. Pulse in the 1 whole egg, lemon juice and coconut oil. Pulse in 4 tablespoons plant milk or water -- the mixture will look like wet sand but will pinch together into a malleable dough when you squeeze it between your fingers.
2. Scrape the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper and form it into a ball. Cover tightly with parchment paper or cellophane. Let rest 30 minutes in the fridge.
3. To shape the galettes: split the disk into 4 equal pieces. While you’re working on one quarter, keep the rest covered or wrapped up (I set mine in a bowl and cover with a cloth). Add a large sheet of parchment paper to your work surface. Form your first dough quarter into a ball and flatten gently into a disc. Set another sheet of parchment paper on top of the disc of dough. Roll the dough out between the two sheets of parchment in a circle until it is a quarter inch thick circle about 8 inches across. Smooth together broken edges with your fingers. To get the edges looking really smooth, I fold and press the edges in towards the center of the dough circle using my fingers.
4. Transfer the flat dough circle to a baking sheet (you can line it with parchment paper for easy clean up). Roll out the rest of the galette crust bases by repeating step 3. I had to use two standard baking sheets to fit all four of galettes -- you need to shape the filled galette crusts directly on the baking sheets, so two pans gives you enough space to work.
5. To fill: dollop approximately three tablespoons of the blueberry jam in the center of each dough circle and use a spoon to spread it out. Add an equal portion of fresh blueberries to the top of the jam -- I focused on getting berries right in the center where they would look the prettiest. You want to leave about 2-3 inches of space all around the jam so that you can fold the crust in toward the center without crust breakage.
6. To fold: Using a bench scraper or spatula, wiggle the scraper/spatula underneath of the dough edges and use it to fold the dough towards the center of the galette, creating folds as you go. The dough is pretty delicate when it’s raw so the bench scraper/spatula is really essential. If the dough cracks press the cracks back together with your fingers. Don’t sweat it if you’re folds aren’t perfect. Just focus on making sure there aren’t any gaping holes at the seam between the bottom of the crust and where the folded edge starts (so filling doesn’t leak out everywhere).  This takes a bit of finesse, and the slower you work the less cracking you get and the more pretty your folds will be. But hey, this is a rustic dessert! It’s ok that it’s all rather messy.
7. Repeat with the rest of the galette crusts.
8. To finish: Using a pastry brush, brush the egg white wash over each galette, getting it into all of the crevices. Sprinkle cane sugar or coconut sugar generously over top of it all.
9. To bake: Preheat the oven to 375. Bake both sheets on the center rack for 14 minutes, until the galettes are golden and firm to the touch. Let cool completely before serving. If using lavender, sprinkle it over the exposed fruit. Use lavender sparingly here for just a touch of flavor. When they’re cool you can lift and transfer the galettes off of the baking sheets easily -- they firm up a lot. Serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!