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Excerpted from Galette! by Rebecca Firkser (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2025. 

A galette is essentially half crust and half filling, so the dough’s flavor is of the utmost importance. Butter, as opposed to shortening or another fat, makes the richest, most flavorful pastry. Sugar balances the salt and fat and aids a bit with browning—include it for sweet and savory galettes alike. Add a water-vinegar mixture by the splash for hydration. Folding the dough over itself a few times (similar to a technique known as turning, more commonly found in pastry recipes like croissants or puff pastry) brings the mixture together and makes an extra-flaky crust.

The butter must stay cold in order for the dough to maintain its structure, then slowly melt and puff in the oven. To ensure this, chill the wet ingredients before they’re incorporated and bring the dough together quickly. It’s not a race, but don’t stop for a phone call halfway through. Save that pause for after you’ve wrapped up the dough, when it absolutely needs at least 2 hours’ rest to relax and hydrate completely before being rolled out.

This recipe makes enough dough for 2 standard galettes (or 4 tiny ones per disk of dough). Make one galette today, freeze a disk of dough for later. Alternatively, combine the entire batch of dough into one “XL” crust, for a sheet pan–sized slab or an extra-tall galette baked in a springform pan.

 

Why use a cast iron skillet for your galette?

It might not be the most traditional choice, but it should be. Cast iron is prized for its heat retention, which helps create a crisp, flaky, golden-brown crust. Plus, the natural seasoning of the skillet ensures a mostly nonstick, low-mess release.

Photo: Jessica Marx

Recipe: A Good Crust

Yield: 2 standard galettes
Print Recipe

Ingredients

  • ½ cup (115 g) water
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 2¾ cups (345 g) spooned and leveled all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1½ teaspoons Diamond Crystal or ¾ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
  • 2½ sticks (10 ounces/285 g) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch (13 mm) cubes, chilled

Tools

No.8 Field Skillet

Bench Scraper

Resources

The Field Method for Cast Iron Care

Instructions

1.

In a liquid measuring cup or a small bowl, combine the water and the vinegar. Place this in the freezer while you work on the next steps.

2.

In a large bowl, use your fingers or a fork to combine the flour, sugar, and salt.

3.

Add the butter to the large bowl and use your fingers or a fork to gently toss around the butter to coat it in the flour mixture. Use your fingers to smash and rub the butter into the flour mixture until it forms flat pieces mostly the size of cannellini beans (about ¾ inch/2 cm) with some smaller (think chickpeas and lentils; about ½ and ¼ inch/13 and 6 mm). The mixture should still look dry and crumbly.

4.

Remove the water-vinegar mixture from the freezer. Drizzle half of the water-vinegar mixture over the flour-butter mixture. Working from the bottom of the bowl up, use your fingers or a fork to gently toss the mixture together, as if you were tossing a salad. Drizzle over another splash of the water-vinegar mixture and toss. Continue to drizzle and toss until a shaggy, chunky mixture forms. It should not be completely combined yet, but there also should be no totally dry areas of flour (look for pebbles of moistened flour, not pure powder). 

You may not need the full amount of water-vinegar mixture. When in doubt, err on the dry side: You can always add liquid, but you can’t take it away.

5.
 

Here’s how to know if you’re in a good place: Pick up a handful of the mixture and squish it. It should mostly hold its stuck-together shape; if not, drizzle an additional 1 teaspoon water-vinegar mixture on the driest areas and toss again, repeating until it holds together.

6.

Dump the mixture onto a clean work surface and use your hands to pat it together into a rectangular mass about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. If you find any more areas that look totally dry, drizzle them with another 1 teaspoon water-vinegar mixture.

7.

Use your hands or a bench scraper to fold the mass of dough over itself. Press down the dough until it’s about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick again. (The dough shouldn’t be moist or sticky, but if so, sprinkle it with a bit of flour as you fold.) Repeat folding and pressing down the dough two or three times. As you fold the dough over itself, the shaggy mass will form into a cohesive dough (this is also going to help the crust bake off extra-flaky). The butter should not blend all the way in, and the surface of the dough should look like marble or wood grain.

8.

If making a standard disk (check your galette recipe): Divide the dough in half, placing each half on a piece of plastic wrap. If making an XL disk (check your galette recipe): Place the entire slab of dough on a piece of plastic wrap.

9.

Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap, then press it into a round or rectangle (see Note) about ¾ inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 5 days.

 

NOTE: Shaping your dough into the approximate shape of your galette (round, rectangular, etc.) will be helpful when rolling it out, but it’s not imperative to achieve success. In fact, I typically shape my dough into squares for easy stacking in the freezer.

ROLLING OUT THE DOUGH:

Depending on which galette you’re making, the dough will be rolled out a bit differently. Your galette recipe will note which of the following methods to use. If at any point your dough starts to get sticky during the rolling process (more likely to happen if your kitchen is warm or if you’ve used butter with a high fat content), return it to the plastic wrap or a sheet pan and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes to firm it back up, then pick up where you left off.

NOTE: Galette dough bakes most successfully when it isn’t overworked, and that applies to rolling as well. Apply firm, even pressure, and roll from the center of the dough out to the edges.

PAN METHOD:

For galettes baked in a greased No.8 cast-iron skillet.

While you prepare the crust and filling, place an unlined sheet pan in the oven to preheat. (Placing the galette pan on a hot flat sheet pan will conduct more direct heat to the bottom of the vessel than oven grates alone will.) Don’t skip this: The sheet pan will also catch any leaks that spring as the galette bakes, especially important for springform and tart pans, which have removable (not sealed) bottoms.

Remove the rested dough from the refrigerator and let it sit out for 5 to 10 minutes (this allows the doughto soften slightly, making it easier to roll out, without getting too warm). Dust a work surface lightly with flour.

Unwrap the dough, sprinkle it with flour, and use a rolling pin to roll it out, flipping and turning the dough and adding more flour as needed to avoid sticking, into a round about 13½ inches (34 cm) in diameter for a standard disk or 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter for an XL disk. Either version should be between ⅛ and ¼ inch (3 and 6 mm) thick. If at any point the dough starts to crack, press it together with your fingers.

Gently fold the dough into quarters (this is just to help you move it; don’t press down), then drape it into the greased pan, letting it slump into the corners and hang over the rim. From here, return to the galette recipe [LINK].

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