Peach, brie & caramelized shallot galette

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

I’ll admit, I’m a lazy baker. I normally choose to bake with berries over any other fruit just because I don’t have to peel or slice them. But lately, there have been so many good-looking peaches on sale, and I couldn’t resist buying a few pounds. After eating a few with the skin on, I wondered why I ever bothered peeling them. I don’t even notice the skin.

I wanted to create an easy (read lazy) peach recipe in which I didn’t need to peel or slice the peaches because there are some days when I just can’t be bothered to do things like that.

Pie was out of the question, but not a galette. A galette is a rustic, free-form pie. “Rustic” is a word we like to use in culinary school when something isn’t necessarily considered “fine dining,” but it’s still delicious and beautiful. Galettes are baked on a baking sheet, not a pie dish, and you really can’t mess them up.

In traditional galettes, you make pie dough and roll it out to a circle. But I used a sheet of store-bought puff pastry instead. You could also use store-bought pie dough, but I really don’t like store-bought pie dough, whereas I don’t mind store-bought puff pastry.

The recipe starts by caramelizing shallots. It takes time to properly caramelize shallots. One chef at school told me it took several hours. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time for that. Around 20 minutes is plenty of time for me. I always start by melting a big chunk of Challenge unsalted butter in my sauté pan first. I only use Challenge butter because it is 100% real cream butter made with with pure pasteurized sweet cream. Also, right after adding the shallots to the pan, make sure to salt the shallots. WHY? Because the salt helps to break the shallots down so they can properly caramelize.

Once you have the shallots made, all you need to do is layer the ingredients on top of the puff pastry. So unroll your puff pastry and prick the center of it with a fork. This will prevent that area from puffing up too much. Don’t prick the edges though because we want those to puff up.

Then layer all the ingredients in the center of the puff pastry where you just pricked it.

A couple of things I want to point out:

• If you don’t like brie, substitute goat cheese, white cheddar, or parmesan.
• I kept the peaches as halves because 1) I liked the way they looked 2) I didn’t want to cut them 3) I was afraid my slightly overripe peaches would get mushy when I baked them.
• But you can do whatever you want! If it makes you feel better to cut them, by all means cut them. If you like peeling peaches, peel them. I didn’t and it was just was easy to cut into when I sliced it up.
• If you want this to be vegetarian, don’t use prosciutto. Just omit it.
• Don’t have basil? Use fresh thyme or rosemary instead.
• Thanks to TikTok, I learned this week I’ve been pronouncing balsamic wrong my whole life. From now on, I read it as baal-saa-muhk.
• Is this a main course or a dessert? It's appropriate to eat at whatever time you decide to eat it!

Balsamic peach, brie & shallot galette

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

For the caramelized shallots

• 2 Tablespoons Challenge unsalted butter
• 4 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

For the galette

• 1 sheet puff pastry, or sub pie dough
• 1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
• 6 ounces brie, thinly sliced
• 3 yellow peaches, halved and pit removed
• 2 ounces prosciutto
• Egg wash (1 egg beat with 2 Tablespoons water)
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 Tablespoons fresh basil
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic glaze

Directions

For the caramelized shallots

1. Melt butter in large saute pan over medium heat. Add shallots and season with salt.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes.
3. Add balsamic vinegar and cook about 2-3 more minutes until shallots soak up vinegar.
4. Remove from pan and allow to cool while preparing rest of galette.

For the galette

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Unroll puff pastry on parchment paper. Use a fork to prick the center of the parchment paper.
3. Spread dijon mustard over the center of the puff pastry sheet (the area you just pricked)
4. Layer caramelized shallots over dijon mustard. 
5. Top with brie and arrange peaches cut side down over brie. 
6. Fill in any gaps with prosciutto.
7. Gather edges of puff pastry and roll up the dough until it's slightly over the edges of the filling,
8. Use pastry brush to brush edges of galette with egg wash.
9. Drizzle honey on top and sprinkle cracked pepper over filling.
10. Place in oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and add fresh basil and balsamic glaze before slicing and serving.