Serves a Crowd
by: Alexandra Stafford
May20,2021
4.3
19 Ratings
- Prep time 2 hours 15 minutes
- Cook time 1 hour
- Makes 24 slices
Jump to Recipe
Author Notes
This time of year, if you garden or subscribe to a CSA, chances are you have a few bundles of Swiss chard monopolizing your fridge. This slab galette, which could feed over 20 people as a first course, is a great way to put those bundles to use. The dough, a David Lebovitz recipe, is one of my favorites, flaky and buttery with a nice crunch thanks to the addition of cornmeal. Feel free to use the filling as a guide — thinly sliced tomatoes or other sautéed vegetables would be nice additions. The key, however, is to go light — a thin layer of whatever filling you choose is best. Also, the recipe can be easily halved and made into a more traditionally-shaped free-form galette.
UPDATE: After many issues raised in the comments regarding dough-making trouble, I have adjusted the recipe to say 4 to 8 tablespoons of ice water. Start with 4 tablespoons, and add water by the tablespoon as needed. —Alexandra Stafford
- Test Kitchen-Approved
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- Galette
- 2 tablespoonsolive oil
- 1 large white onion
- Salt to taste
- 2 cloves garlic
- Pinchcrushed red pepper flakes
- 2 bunchesSwiss chard, stems removed (about 500 grams, post-stemming)
- 1 Cornmeal Galette Dough
- 1 cupfresh ricotta
- 1 cupgrated Gruyère or Comté
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoonmilk or cream
- Cornmeal pastry dough
- 2 1/2 cups(320 g) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup(102 g) yellow cornmeal
- 2 teaspoonssugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoonskosher salt
- 12 tablespoonsunsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
- 6 tablespoonsolive oil
- 4 to 8 tablespoonsice water
Directions
- Galette
- Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan or soup pot over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds. Pile the chard on top, cover the pan if you are able, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the leaves begin to wilt. Uncover the pan, use tongs to rearrange the leaves and continue cooking the chard until any liquid evaporates. Taste. This is your chance to season the chard, so add more salt if necessary.
- Adjust an oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 375° F. Line a jelly roll pan with with kitchen parchment paper.
- Roll the dough on a floured surface into a large rectangle, about 15- x 21-inches or about an inch or two bigger in length and width than your sheet pan. Flip the dough every so often to ensure it’s not sticking. If it is, dust the surface with more flour. Loosely fold the dough in half and half again and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet. Unfold the dough and center it to your pan.
- Spread a thin layer of ricotta on the bottom of the dough, leaving a two-inch border all the way around. Spread the onion and chard mixture over top in a thin, even layer. Sprinkle the grated cheese over top. Fold the edges of the dough inward over the filling. Pinch together any tears in the dough. Mix together the egg yolk and milk and brush it over the exposed crust.
- Bake until the crust has browned and the cheese has melted, 35 to 45 minutes. Slide the galette off the parchment and onto a cooling rack or cutting board. Let cool for 10 minutes. Cut the galette into 24 pieces. Serve.
- Cornmeal pastry dough
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt until blended. Add the chilled butter to the bowl and pulse until it is evenly distributed but still in large, visible pieces. Add the olive oil and pulse a few times. Add 4 tablespoons of the ice water and pulse until the dough begins to come together, adding water by the tablespoon as needed.) Dump dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Roughly shape the dough into a rectangle. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Alternatively, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter using the back of a fork or pastry cutter. Add olive oil and 4 tablespoons of the ice water and mix until dough just comes together, adding ice water as needed.)
Tags:
- Pie
- Galette
- American
- Vegetable
- Milk/Cream
- Cornmeal
- Serves a Crowd
- Sheet Pan
- Summer
- Winter
- Spring
- Fall
See what other Food52ers are saying.
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Nancy MacKimm
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Nancy Pollock Cole
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Jennifer Uzumcu
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Alexandra Stafford
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I write the blog alexandra's kitchen, a place for mostly simple, sometimes fussy, and always seasonal recipes. My cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs is available everywhere books are sold.
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74 Reviews
baker3b October 14, 2023
An additional comment: I overlooked the gradual pulse instructions for the dough, instead running the food processor steadily while letting the olive oil drip into the dry ingredients. I then added just four T of ice water, again in a steady stream. I also just rolled the dough directly IN the parchment-lined baking sheet. The dough turned out fine, needing only a few patch jobs with extra dough.
baker3b October 14, 2023
This galette provides not only delicious flavor contrasts between the chard mixture, cheeses, and salty crust. What makes it exceptional is the contrast in textures of the creamy cheeses, meltingly soft chard and toothsome crust. Using what we had on hand, we used soft goat cheese instead of ricotta and a havarti instead of Gruyère. Wonderful!
Nancy M. June 21, 2023
Even with the clarification regarding ice water this dough is still impossible. Made it exactly as specified and it fell apart. Had to put it in the baking sheet in pieces and just press it into place.
Tartanhabit March 15, 2023
Loved the chard mix but the pastry was too much fuss and a bit of an odd texture. Great topping, will repeat but do a different base.
NXL December 25, 2020
Oh, dear. This crust was impossible, although it had great flavor. I had to press it into my pan, then the tart crumbled into pieces when I tried yo cut it.
Gail B. December 28, 2020
Keep trying. The first time I made it I missed the olive oil, and had the same results as you. Like Anne, below, I always roll it out on parchment paper now, and it works quite well.
Anne M. October 30, 2020
This was delicious. We really enjoyed the cornmeal in the crust. After reading some of the reviews, I rolled it onto parchment paper and successfully transferred it to the pan. I used up all of the swiss chard in the garden ahead of the frost and will be making this again.
Nora October 5, 2020
@Wavey I totally get you on consistent weights! 1 tablespoon of butter weighs 14.2g
So this recipe calls for 170.4 grams of butter!
Malia July 15, 2020
Oh that pastry.....it doesn't know if its pie dough or shortbread :) I soon realized that there was NO WAY that I was going to get it from the board to the pan (although is was very moist, it kept cracking as I rolled it)...I just put the whole batch in the pan and used the finger press method, Worked great. All I changed in the filling was had a combo of chard and kale. Most importantly, it was DELISH and a hit at the party!
Jennifer U. October 12, 2020
After reading the comments on the difficulty of rolling the dough, I laid out a sheet of parchment paper and rolled the dough to roughly the size of my sheet pan then transferred it to the pan. It stayed in one piece with a minor crack when I lifted one corner too quickly but all good!
Wavey January 26, 2020
I thought I was a bit of a pastry hero, but this crust is very humbling. I ended up having to cut it into pieces to fit it into the pan. Managed not to cry and the final product is entirely delicious. My son said it was the best thing he'd even in ages. It looks nice too. I will make it again and just persevere with the crust and use even more water, I guess.
For the record I used weight measurements. And desperately wish the butter was also by weight as I don't buy sticks.
Larisa November 30, 2019
I made this galette for Thanksgiving and it was absolutely delicious it was gone until even we start our feast😂 my daughter taught me one trick to roll my dough between two parchment papers, you don’t need no flour when you done just remove top paper and transfer your dough on baking sheet, and before you put your filling I put my dough for 10 minutes in refrigerator, ty for lovely recipe and yes I put 8tbsp. Ice water.
Nancy P. November 10, 2019
The dough was really, really hard to work with. It kept cracking when rolling. There was no way to fold it to transfer to the sheet pan. I ended up wrapping it around my rolling pin to transfer but it fell to pieces. Finally got it in the pan very much pieced together! The good news - it's a delicious galette! I'll use another dough next time.
judy November 9, 2019
I opted out of making the dough, after reading reviews. Instead I bought pizza dough ready made and sprinkled it with cornmeal and some granulated garlic. followed the recipe for the chard exactly. Baked up beautifully, and was seriously delicious for lunch and dinner an some for breakfast the third day. I am in a small makeshift apartment with a kitchenette, so struggling iwht the dough was more than I wanted to do, but I really wanted to try this recipe. I am so glad that I did. Thanks
Shirlee August 30, 2021
This is what I plan to do on a second try. The filling, ricotta, and gruyere combination was delicious, and I know I would have enjoyed it more on a traditional pizza crust (maybe whole wheat dough actually). It will be healthier and cheaper. I actually thought "galette" was more like a cracker-ish pizza, and was super disappointed as I started making it that it was like a shortbread, and was much too rich and dry for this filling. Waste of a LOT of butter imho, but that's on me by not reading the recipe before getting started.
caarin June 3, 2019
I made this for a backyard bbq -absolutely delicious. I wasn’t sure what type of cornmeal to buy (fine or coarse ground) so I opted for a different crust. I used more ricotta and gruyere than the recipe called for. So glad there was a piece left for breakfast this morning!
Alexandra S. June 3, 2019
So happy to hear this Caarin!
caarin June 3, 2019
Made this for a backyard bbq - it was a hit! Really delicious. I chickened out of making the dough because I didn’t know what type of cornmeal to buy - so I went with a different crust recipe. I used more ricotta and more gruyere than he recipe called for. So glad there was a piece leftover for breakfast today!
Barbara A. December 22, 2017
This was a star recipe although the dough is so dry it is difficult to work with. But the result was that everyone really loved it. Perhaps re-do the dough recipe as I notice others had the same issue.
Kitspy November 14, 2017
Halved the recipe and made this using kale and mixed mushrooms. It was supposed to be for a party, but the party was cancelled at the last minute, so we just had it for dinner instead and had some leftovers. Made it on Saturday and I'm eating cold leftovers for lunch on Tuesday - still delicious! I didn't have much trouble with the dough. It was a little crumbly and tricky to shape into a disk using 4 T of water, but I persevered, and it turned out great.
Alexandra S. November 14, 2017
So happy to hear this, Kitspy! Kale and mushrooms sounds delicious. Must try.
Gail B. September 8, 2017
I had the same problem the first time I made this recipe - I had forgotten to put in the oil. I did have to play around with the pastry recipe a bit after (see my comments below), but you could also use your favourite galette dough recipe and then follow the rest of this recipe. I always get raves when I bring this to a party. Well worth the effort.
Karen September 8, 2017
Very disappointed. Made the dough as directed and it was so hard from the refrigerator, had to break it up and knead it to be able to roll it out. Never managed to roll it into a rectangle and ended up putting it in pieces in the cookie sheet and then rolling it. Not as flavorful as I would have expected. Won't make again.
Alexandra S. September 8, 2017
Sorry to hear this Karen. This dough is a little tricky. For whatever reason, a half recipe of the dough comes out much better/more easily. It's really one of my favorites when it comes out — the original recipe was for a summer galette with leeks, tomatoes, corn and gruyere, and it is one of my favorite summer recipes. Sorry this didn't work out for you.
Gail B. May 5, 2017
I have made this recipe several times. The first time I forgot to add the olive oil. The crust was a little stiff and hard to manage, but tasted delicious. The next time I put in all of the olive oil and found the dough far too soft to handle well. Now I cut the olive oil in half, and am very stingy with the water. I make two smaller tarts and put one (fully assembled) in the freezer. The trick to freezing the tart is to take it straight from the freezer to the hot oven. (My mother taught me this trick) That way the dough doesn't become soft and watery from the thawing contents. I am trying it tonight with kale.
Emilie December 15, 2016
I made this for a dinner with friends and it turned out great! It did not turn out as large as mentioned in the author notes, but easily fed 4 of us with a salad.
Alexandra S. May 8, 2017
Nice! So happy to hear this, Emilie.
