Mini Cinnamon Blueberry Galettes Recipe

One of the best ways to use ripe, juicy summer berries is in between the flaky layers of a freshly baked pie. Between cherry, blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry, the pies of the summer are endlessly sweet, tart, and saucy, a bright departure from fall's spiced pumpkins and apples. While pie is a perfect dessert for those who like decadent fillings and buttery crusts, it is also a labor of love, often needing not one, but two crusts — and some skill and patience.

Galettes offer the same flaky, buttery crust and gorgeous presentation as a full pie, but require half the work (and finesse). Galettes have a rustic appearance and thrive on being a little imperfect — any uneven crusts are hardly noticeable after the galette is baked to a golden brown. Making them miniature, like these blueberry galettes developed by Michelle McGlinn, is also a great way to serve galettes for a crowd with no mess. Each galette in this recipe is filled to the brim with fresh blueberries, lemon, cinnamon, and a sweet whipped ricotta cream. These cinnamon sugar-dusted galettes are the perfect single-serving blueberry pies to make the end of summer just a little bit sweeter.

For the crust, you'll need flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, cold butter, and cold water. To ensure the water is cold, fill a measuring cup with ice, then cover it with cold water. When it's time to use it, remove the ice and drain the water to ½ cup. For the filling, you'll first need ricotta, cream cheese, and vanilla extract. Then for the blueberry filling, you'll just need fresh blueberries, lemon, and cornstarch. To finish the galettes, grab an egg for the egg wash and grate some lemon zest for garnish.

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Set aside.

Combine the flour, salt, cubed butter, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar in a food processor.

Pulse until the butter is chopped into pea-sized pieces, about 10 pulses.

Add the ice water and pulse continuously until a dough ball forms. If needed, add more water to form a soft and sticky dough.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces, flatten them into discs, wrap them in plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, combine the fillings. In one bowl, beat the ricotta, cream cheese, vanilla, and 1 teaspoon sugar until fluffy.

In another bowl, combine the blueberries, lemon juice, cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar. Chill until ready to use.

Working with one dough disc at a time, roll the disc out onto a floured surface until ⅛-inch thick, or the thickness of a penny.

Use a bowl to cut 5 6-inch rounds out of the dough, re-rolling the scraps as needed, and place the rounds on a parchment- or silicone-lined sheet tray.

Spread 1 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture onto the center of each galette, leaving a 1-inch border.

Spoon ¼-cup blueberry mixture on top of the cream cheese.

Fold up the edges of the galettes, leaving an opening in the middle to expose the berries. Return to the refrigerator to chill and repeat with the remaining dough disc.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

When both baking sheets have chilled for 30 minutes (or working in batches), remove the galettes and brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, and add to the oven immediately.

Bake until browned and flaky, 30 to 35 minutes.

To serve, garnish with lemon zest.

In almost any pie crust recipe, you'll notice that the dough has to be made with cold butter and has to be chilled before baking. This is for a few reasons: First, because cold butter is what creates flaky layers, and second because the cold dough temperature prevents gluten from making the dough stretchy and pliable. While with pizza and bread, you want maximum rise, a pie is the opposite, needing to stay the same shape and thickness as when you bake it. This is especially true with galettes, which risk opening up in the oven.

The key, then, is to use cold butter and cold water, and not only keep the dough fairly cold while working but also make sure it is chilled before baking. If you're making the dough with your hands or a pastry cutter instead of a food processor, work quickly and take breaks to chill the dough if the butter begins to feel too warm. Split the dough into 2 discs to ensure you can form the galettes without the dough getting warm (You can even split the dough further into 4 discs if needed). Most importantly, chill the galettes before baking them until the dough is firm. Poking a finger into the dough should not make an indent, it should be completely firm. 

Galettes are normally served by the slice, like pie or pizza. With these miniature galettes, there is no need to slice and serve because each galette is one serving. Because of this, miniature galettes make great dessert options for dinner parties, tea parties, luncheons, or gatherings in which guests might grab their own dessert or want to avoid messy slicing. Besides lemon zest, serve these galettes with vanilla bean ice cream, lemon gelato, or a dollop of frozen yogurt. You can also add fresh mint or powdered sugar.

These galettes can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. To reheat, air fry for 4 minutes at 350 F, or bake at 350 F for 10 minutes or until warmed through. Do not microwave; the crust will become soggy. Since these are best fresh but take a few hours to make, you can also make them ahead of time. The dough can be made up to 3 months in advance and frozen. The galettes can be assembled fully and chilled for up to 8 hours before baking. Do not freeze fully assembled galettes.