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Jammy Grape Galette

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We don’t bake with grapes as often as we should. So often relegated to a jumbled fruit salad (where they end up lost in a sea of other flavors and textures), or worse yet, frozen into a flavorless, tooth-tingling “dessert,” grapes deserve another look. Even the most average supermarket varieties—use black or red in a galette for their color—come alive when roasted with a bit of sugar and seasoning. They caramelize on the outside while the innards go jammy. Technically in season from summer to fall, the grapes available at the farmers market are truly special. They can be tart-skinned and fizzy inside, coated with cloudy (edible!) yeast, as small as blueberries, or oblong like doll-size eggplants. All are welcome in this galette, so long as they’re seedless. Finished with sesame (seeds and toasted oil), it tastes eerily like a PB&J sandwich.

Note: This recipe makes enough dough for 2 standard galettes (or 4 tiny ones per disk of dough). You'll only need 1 standard disk, so make one galette today, then freeze a disk of dough for later.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    4 hours

  • Yield

    6–8 servings

Ingredients

A Good Crust

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

Jammy Grape Galette

1¼ lb. (565 g) stemmed seedless black or red grapes (about 4 heaping cups), such as Black Corinth, Thomcord, and/or Flame
¼ cup (50 g) sugar, plus more for sprinkling
3 Tbsp. (25 g) cornstarch
2 Tbsp. tawny port, red vermouth, or balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary or thyme leaves (optional)
½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt
1 standard disk A Good Crust
All-purpose flour, for dusting
Egg wash: 1 large egg, beaten
Sesame seeds
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil (optional), for serving

Preparation

  1. A Good Crust

    Step 1

    In a liquid measuring cup or a small bowl, combine ½ cup (115 g) water and 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar. Place this in the freezer while you work on the next steps.

    Step 2

    In a large bowl, use your fingers or a fork to combine 2¾ cups (345 g) spooned and leveled all-purpose flour, 1 Tbsp. sugar, and 1½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¾ tsp. Morton kosher salt.

    Step 3

    Add 2½ sticks (10 oz./285 g) unsalted butter, cut into ½" (13-mm) cubes, chilled, 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"/2 cm) with some smaller (think chickpeas and lentils; about ½" and ¼"/13 and 6 mm). The mixture should still look dry and crumbly.

    Step 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.

    Step 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 tsp. water-vinegar mixture on the driest areas and toss again, repeating until it holds together.

    Step 6

    Use your hands or a bench scraper to fold the mass of dough over itself. Press down the dough until it’s about 1" (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.

    Step 7

    Divide the dough in half, placing each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Wrap the dough in the plastic, then press it into a round or rectangle about ¾" (2 cm) thick. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 5 days. (Alternatively, freeze for up to 3 months.)

    Step 8

    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.

  2. Jammy Grape Galette

    Step 9

    Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) with a rack positioned in the center. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

    Step 10

    In a large bowl, combine 1¼ lb. (565 g) stemmed seedless black or red grapes (about 4 heaping cups), such as Black Corinth, Thomcord, and/or Flame, ¼ cup (50 g) sugar, 3 Tbsp. (25 g) cornstarch, 2 Tbsp. tawny port, red vermouth, or balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary or thyme leaves (if using), and ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt.

    Step 11

    Remove the rested 1 standard disk A Good Crust from the refrigerator and let it sit out for 5–10 minutes (this allows the dough to soften slightly, making it easier to roll out, without getting too warm). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Dust a work surface lightly with all-purpose flour.

    Step 12

    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" (34 cm) in diameter and between ⅛" and ¼" (3 and 6 mm) thick; or a rectangle about 14x11" (33x28 cm) and between ⅛" and ¼" (3 and 6 mm) thick. If at any point the dough starts to crack, press it together with your fingers.

    Step 13

    Gently fold the dough into quarters (this is just to help you move it; don’t press down), place on the parchment-lined sheet pan, and unfold.

    Step 14

    Leaving any excess liquid in the bowl, spoon the filling into the crust, leaving a 3" (7.5-cm) border. Fold the edges of the crust over the filling toward the center, overlapping and pleating as desired. Freeze the galette on the sheet pan for 10 minutes.

    Step 15

    Remove the galette from the freezer and brush 1 large egg, beaten, over the exposed crust. Sprinkle sesame seeds and more sugar over the crust.

    Step 16

    Bake until the crust is starting to turn golden, 12–15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C) and continue to bake until the fruit is bubbling and the crust is deeply golden brown, another 40–50 minutes, rotating the sheet pan front to back halfway through.

    Step 17

    Remove the galette from the oven and cool, uncovered, for 25 minutes or up to 2 hours.

    Step 18

    Slice and serve, drizzled with 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil (if using).

    Step 19

    Do Ahead: Leftovers can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, for up to 2 days. Reheat on a sheet pan in a 350°F (180°C) oven until warmed through, about 10 minutes.

Cover of Galette! with a galette on a platter.
Excerpted from Galette! by Rebecca Firkser (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2025. Photographs by Jessica Marx. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.

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