Getting Fancy on a Weeknight: Rustic Mushroom and Goat Cheese Galette

I am making an exception to my no-posting-on-the-weekend rule because a) I didn’t post yesterday (it was my birthday!), and b) earlier in the week, I promised this recipe in an Instagram caption. So here we are. Happy Saturday.

I made this recipe once before with some success, and when it popped into my head again recently, I knew I wanted a re-do. However, this is not really kid-friendly for this house, so I had to double up: easy dinner for Mini, and then fancy dinner for Us after she was in bed. Since most of the making of this dish takes about 25-30 minutes, and then it has to bake, this was not so hard to pull off. HOWEVER, you want some time for the dough portion, so the fact that I worked from home this day was on my side. Plan ahead and you’re in for a delicious dinner. Also worth noting: do not file this one under Especially Healthy.

I made this generally following a recipe from something I pinned (here), but I did wander away from the original a bit, and I’ll note where and how below. Now…

WHAT YOU NEED
for the dough
* 1 1/4C flour
* 1/4t salt
* 1/2C (1 stick) frozen, unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
* 1/4C sour cream
* 2t fresh lemon juice
* 1/4C ice water

for the filling
* 2T unsalted butter
* 1 1/2lb thinly sliced mushrooms (equal amounts of shiitake and cremini; I bought sliced cremini and did not bother slicing the shiitake – worked out fine)
* 1/2 large yellow onion, finely julienned (I used one medium-ish sized onion, and sliced it as thinly as I could with my super unprofessional julienne-ing skills)
* 3-4 cloves of garlic, smashed (duh, I say 4-5 cloves)
* 1/2C dry sherry
* large sprig of fresh thyme (I used dry, and just estimated – I recommend using fresh if possible – you’ll see why later)
* large sprig of fresh rosemary (same comments as re: thyme)
* salt + pepper, to taste
* ~4-5oz goat cheese

WHAT TO DO
Like I said before, I had some time to make the dough ahead. But I will say that the first time I made this, I didn’t know I needed it, and I just followed the directions and chilled it while I prepared everything else and it turned out just fine. So… worth noting. Anyway, this time I followed the instructions AND chilled my dough.

The Dough
In a medium bowl, combine the salt and flour, and then add the butter in small pieces, mixing it into the flour until the whole thing looks a bit like meal and the butter pieces get broken up even smaller, if possible (original recipe says they should be the size of small peas, but I couldn’t make that happen, so… whatever works).

In another, small bowl, whisk the water, sour cream, and lemon juice together, and then add it into the dry ingredients bowl slowly, mixing carefully until the dough begins to come together into lumps. Then put all the lumps together and use your hands to form a large ball. I’ll quote the original recipe here – “do not overwork the dough.” You want it to just come together into a ball, and then you cover it with plastic wrap and pop it into the fridge for 1-2 hours. Sorry no photos here – the dough is not particularly photogenic.

The Filling
Heat a big skillet over high heat, then add the butter and mushrooms. The original recipe says to slice all of your mushrooms thinly. As I mentioned above, I was prepping early for a dinner to come later, while also cooking for a toddler on a (vague) schedule. So I didn’t bother slicing them up. I left them whole and it worked and contributed to the rustic effect. But I think if I had more time, I’d probably rough chop everything, rather than slice them up. That’s just me.

Anywhose… Saute it all up, allowing the mushrooms to release their moisture (which they’ll do right away), until almost all of the liquid is evaporated off. They’ll shrink WAY up and give you all the room you need in the pan.

Toss in the smashed garlic and the onion and stir them in. Cook until the onions become translucent.

Now we get fancy. Remove the pan from heat. Prepare the sherry and pour it into the hot pan to deglaze it, stirring up all the bits and pieces on the bottom.

Then return it to medium heat and add in the thyme and rosemary, and cook until the sherry has fully evaporated. Note: the original recipe calls for large sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary – I didn’t have these on-hand, so I used dry. Better to go with the fresh, and you’ll see why later. But if you don’t have fresh, use just a small amount of dry, just enough to add their essence. Now. Season your mixture with salt and pepper to taste, and then remove it from the heat source and let it cool to room temp or as much as you’re able, time-wise. Here is why the fresh herbs are better: before the next step, discard the large sprigs of thyme and rosemary and the garlic cloves.

Put it All Together

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Prepare a floured surface to get your dough ready for assembly, then take your dough ball out of the fridge and roll or pat it out into as close to a round shape as possible. The original recipe says to roll it out into a 12-in round. I was deliberately going for rustic, so I did not get precise. Hey, remember earlier when I said not to file this one under “Especially Healthy”?? – Check out the butter, man! You can SEE it. Eh, live a little, I say.

Once you’ve rolled or patted it out sufficiently, move your dough over to a parchment lined baking sheet, or, if you don’t have parchment paper like me, into a lightly baking-spray-sprayed shallow pie dish, and set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, crumble about 3oz (give or take) of the goat cheese, and to it add the mushroom mixture, now somewhat cooled, and mix it up together.

How good does that look?!

Place this into the center of the dough, but be sure to leave a border untouched by filling all the way around.

Now fold the edges of the dough (remember: rustic!) just over the majority of the filling, but leave the middle part uncovered.

Bake for 30 minutes at 400. Then sprinkle the rest of the goat cheese over the top and bake again for about 10 minutes more. Now, I would say it’s best served hot, but you’ll want to let it rest just a few minutes at least first. That said, mine finished baking right about when the bedtime process began, so we ate ours significantly cooled, and it was still luscious, indulgent, and wonderful in every way.

“Galette” sounds like a fancy, intimidating pro technique-requiring dish (or a brand of razors). But it’s actually really kind of simple to pull off. Faux Fancy. That’s how I roll. Who doesn’t want to faux fancy in their sweats on the couch on a busy weeknight? It helps maintain the illusion. You know what I’m talking about.

Bon Apetit!

(I love this beautiful blog, Blogging Over Thyme, where my originally-pinned recipe came from. Here‘s the original post again. And here‘s where I pinned it on my board, Yummmmm: Meatless Monday.)