Squash Goat Cheese Nut and Cherry Galette – Welcome to Oven Season!

Now that the heat of summer appears to be past and some of us have even enjoyed our first snow, our ovens come back into play with any-time-of-day baking. And FFA’s Squash Goat Cheese Nut and Cherry Galette is a good start to getting back at it with a satisfying, vegetarian dish that uses what’s on hand in the pantry and ripe in the garden right now.

What’s a Galette?

And you might ask, what is a galette? A galette is a free-form crust that you can fill with sweet or savory food. It’s not quite a pie and kind of like a pizza, but with a non-yeast crust that partially folds over itself. Here we use our most moisture-proof and quick-to-make 3-2-1 crust to enfold these simple, delicious ingredients. Some of the inspiration for this galette recipe goes to Yankee Magazine.

Squash Goat Cheese Nut and Cherry Galette

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking time:  45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 small Delicata or Butternut squash, cut lengthwise, seeded and sliced into ¼ inch half circles
• 6 ounces goat cheese 
• ½ a small onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup dried cherries
• ½ cup roughly chopped nuts (raw cashews, walnuts work well)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 stick (½ cup) cold, unsalted butter
• ½ cup cold water
• 2 tablespoons milk

Step-by-step Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Then make the 3-2-1 paste: In a medium-sized bowl combine the flour with the butter, which is cut into 8 pieces. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, cut or rub the butter into the flour until it’s combined and mostly pea-sized with some largish lumps of butter left. Add a ½ cup of cold water (if your flour is very dry, it might require more water) and mix as if for any pie crust (lightly and not too long) and form into a moist ball. Cover with a wet towel and set in refrigerator for ½ hour to rest.
3. Next you will parboil the squash for about 5 minutes in lightly salted water, pour off water and set aside.
4. In a medium-sized  pan, saute the chopped onions in 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Just before they begin to color, add the goat cheese and combine by melting, heating the mixture through. Remove from the heat and set aside.
5. Remove your 3-2-1 dough from the fridge and cut in half. (Save the other half of the crust in a freezer bag for your next galette.) 
6. Form dough into a ball and roll until you can see the cutting board or counter through it (somewhat transparent). Transfer rolled crust to a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet.
7. Then to assemble the galette: spread goat cheese mixture over the center of the dough, leaving a 2 ½ inch ring around the outer edge of the crust. Lay out the squash in concentric rings beginning from the outer edge of the cheese circle and heading to the center. Sprinkle the nuts and dried cherries over the top of the squash. 
8. Fold the crust over the edge of the galette. Brush milk around the edge of the crust.
9. Bake for about 35 minutes, until browned. 
10. And then cut into wedges and serve hot, room temperature or cold.

Here’s another FFA recipe…

…this time for an apple galette so that you can use up the rest of your 3-2-1 crust!