Easy Puff Pastry Blood Orange Galettes
Looking for an easy but impressive dessert? Puff pastry and blood oranges make these orange galettes both beautiful and a snap to bake.
Servings 6 galettes
Ingredients
Creme Anglaise
- 1 cup half and half
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp brandy
- pinch of kosher salt
Blood Orange Galettes
- 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed, 9x9 inches
- 3 medium blood oranges
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp almond flour
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
Creme Anglaise
- Fill a large bowl partway with ice water and set it aside. Next to the bowl of ice water, place a medium bowl and a fine mesh strainer. Then take a small bowl and whisk the egg yolks together with the cornstarch and set it by the cook top. Finally, pull out an instant read thermometer since you will need it later. Once you have everything set out, pour the half and half into a medium saucepan and stir in the brown sugar. Warm over medium heat until the the sugar is dissolved and the milk is steaming and making bubbles around the edges of the pan, but not yet boiling. Remove the milk from the heat.
- While whisking the egg yolks constantly, slowly drizzle in a ladleful of the milk. Add another while continuing to whisk. Now, slowly pour the egg and milk mixture into the saucepan while whisking again. Add the brandy to the custard now. Put the saucepan back on the heat and cook, stirring constantly with a spatula until the custard reaches 178-180F in your thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, you are looking for the custard to thicken and steam but not boil.
- Immediately pour the custard through the fine mesh strainer into the medium bowl. This will remove any bits of scrambled egg. Place the bowl of custard into the ice water bowl to chill. Taste the custard and add kosher salt by the pinch until you are happy with the flavor. Press a piece of plastic wrap over the top if you wish (this will keep a skin from forming) and let the custard cool. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Blood Orange Galettes
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Lay out the square of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board. Go over the pastry with a rolling pin to smooth it out and make it a little bigger, about 1 inch more on each side. Cut the puff pastry into three strips and then cut each strip in half.
- Cut the ends off of three blood oranges and then slice down to cut off the rind. Slice each orange into 6 wagon wheel slices. Try to remove as much of the center pith as possible without destroying the slices.
- Arrange the puff pastry pieces onto the baking tray. Sprinkle each one with brown sugar, using 1 1/2 tablespoons in total. Then add 1 teaspoon of almond flour in a stripe down the middle of the piece. Top with 3 orange slices, layered so they overlap each other. Then sprinkle on the rest of the brown sugar and dot with butter.
- Bake the orange galettes for 28-30 minutes. Transfer them to a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature topped with creme anglaise or ice cream.
Notes
- The creme anglaise is easier than it looks in the description! I tried to add as much detail as possible to make it very clear on what needs to be done. These are the same steps you would need to make any pudding from scratch or to make an egg-thickened sauce.
- Don't skip the cornstarch. It helps protect the egg yolks from curdling and will give you a little more leeway with the temperature.
- When checking the temperature, I've found tilting the saucepan to be useful. Thermometers have trouble with thin layers of sauce.
- The galettes are best the day they are made, but I still find them tasty even two days later.
- You can make the creme anglaise ahead of time, or while the galettes are baking. If you make it ahead, let it warm up on the counter a bit before you serve it. It does get rather thick in the fridge. Unless you like it thick. Then just serve it cold.
- For adult tastebuds, you can add a little more brandy to the cooling custard for a little extra zing.