Dessert with sweet summer peaches is hard to beat, but try adding tart rhubarb and a flaky crust that takes just minutes to put together. Top with whipped cream for a scrumptious peach rhubarb galette.
Just in case you’ve run out of ideas for what to do with peaches this summer, try making a peach rhubarb galette to show off the the seasons best. Not too sweet, but bursting with flavor, it’s a combination you’ve got to try.
Rhubarb adds a slight tartness to sweet peaches for a dessert that’s not overly rich or sweet to compliment any meal. Since the growing season for peaches is so long, they’re around most of the summer, but you can only make so many cakes or pies before you get bored. A galette with rhubarb will change things up a bit.
It’s quick to put together and a combination you may not have tried before. Not as sweet as a peach crumble and not as much trouble as a fruit pie.
Why you’ll love this peach dessert
- It can be a spur of the moment dessert
- Just takes a few minutes to prepare
- Simple ingredients but scrumptious flavor
- Flaky crust that you can’t mess up
- You can substitute whatever fruit’s in season, try adding blueberries
How to ripen peaches
Did you know that peaches are one of those fruits that will ripen off the tree. But what do you do if you want to make a peach dessert and the peaches you bought at the grocery or farmer’s market aren’t quite ripe yet.
To speed up the process, add a ripe banana to your container of peaches and it’s amazing that after just a day, they’ll be ready to eat.
If your peaches are still not ripe, put the peaches with the banana in a paper bag and seal it. Bananas produce ethylene gas as they ripen which causes other fruit around them to ripen also. How cool is that!
Where can you find rhubarb
While peaches are around from May through late September and grow in many areas of the country, rhubarb is a bit more difficult. It’s a perennial but requires temperatures below 40º in the winter and below 75º in the summer. That leaves me out in North Carolina. In those areas that can grow this fruit, it’s only available from April through June. Not to worry, rhubarb freezes well so you don’t have to have fresh.
If you’re lucky enough to get fresh rhubarb, you want to choose the dark red stalks for sweeter and more flavorful fruit, although the greenish stalks are still good. For me, it’s the grocery or freezer section. Check out The Old Farmers Almanac to see if it grows in your area and for the 411 on everything you could possible want to know about rhubarb check out this interesting article.
With rhubarb in hand whether frozen or fresh, it needs to be sliced into thin slices, avoid the leaves, they’re poisonous! My grandmother had rhubarb growing in her back yard in Idaho and she would add it to everything, but my favorite was her homemade applesauce with rhubarb.
What’s the difference between a galette and a pie
The only difference between a pie and a galette is how it’s assembled. I use the same dough whether I’m making a pie or a galette. If it’s a savory galette, like Chicken Pot Pie Galette or Tomato Galette, I’ll add some herbs or cheese to the crust, for a dessert galette, I’ll sprinkle sanding sugar on top before it’s baked.
If you’re not familiar with sanding sugar, it’s just a larger crystal of sugar that’s great for topping desserts. I’ll choose a galette over a pie, when the fruit I’m using is so juicy that it’ll be hard to get pretty slices if made in pie form. A galette is more rustic and no one expects picture perfect slices.
What you’ll need
- Peaches and rhubarb – an equal amount. Three cups each will fill up the crust, it doesn’t need to be exact. You don’t want to overfill a galette or it will loose it’s shape.
- Brown and white sugar – sugar brings out the natural sweetness in fruit.
- Cornstarch – when using juicy fruit like peaches, you’ll need cornstarch to thicken it.
- Sanding sugar and an egg or butter – the large crystals from the sugar make the top beautiful and add a little sweetness. An egg or butter brushed on top gives it the pretty golden color and sheen.
- Pie crust – you can use a store bought crust, but it’s pretty easy to make your own with flour, butter, apple cider vinegar, a little sugar, salt and water.
How to make a fruit galette
Step 1: For any fruit galette, start with a standard pie crust, refrigerate and then roll it out into a large circle. I roll it out just a bit thicker than I would a pie crust so it will hold in all the juices, but just to be safe, bake it on a rimmed baking sheet, or put an extra pan below your baking sheet to catch any juice that escapes.
I forgot to do this the last time and made a mess in my oven.🙀
Roll out the pie dough onto parchment paper and then just slip the parchment paper onto your rimmed baking sheet before you add the fruit. I find that the dough is easier to handle if you refrigerate it for just a few minutes before adding the fruit.
Step 2: Slice the peaches and rhubarb. Since peaches are so juicy, you’ll need to add some cornstarch to your fruit along with a little sugar and then place it in the middle of your dough.
Pull up the sides so that you have about an inch covering the fruit, then brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with some sanding sugar and bake. If you prefer, you can brush with butter instead of an egg wash for a shiny finish.
Step 3: You’ll need to bake this long enough for the rhubarb to be soft, you don’t want crunchy rhubarb. This takes about 45 minutes depending on how thick the rhubarb is. If the crust starts to get too brown before the rhubarb is soft, then cover the edges with aluminum foil.
Once the rhubarb has softened and the crust is golden brown remove it and let it cool slightly before cutting. We like this with just a bit of whipped cream, but ice cream would also be awesome. A perfect way to end the summer.
FAQs and tips
Yes, peaches will ripen for a couple days after being picked as long as they weren’t picked green. If you see a green tinge to the peach, it won’t ripen.
This galette dough is the same recipe I use for a homemade butter pie crust. Some galette dough will have herbs added to it, but the base is the same as a pie crust.
The difference between a galette and a pie is that the crust for a galette is free formed instead of being formed in a pie pan. The top edges are turned over the edges of the fruit.
If you have juicy fruit like strawberries or peaches, the juice will run out of the galette crust unless you add some thickener to the fruit like cornstarch. Also be careful not to pile the fruit too high inside the galette.
Looking for more rhubarb recipes
Things that are helpful to have for this recipe
- Parchment paper (I love King Arthur’s pre-cut parchment paper)
- Sanding sugar
More peach recipes you’ll love
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Peach and Rhubarb Galette
Ingredients
PASTRY
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons butter cold and cut into 1 inch pieces
- ⅛ cup cold ice water
- ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
FILLING
- 3 cups peaches peeled and sliced
- 3 cups rhubarb sliced into thin slices
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- sanding sugar
Equipment
- Parchment paper
Instructions
Pastry:
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand with some larger pieces of butter. Add ice water and vinegar and pulse until it comes together. Place in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or freeze for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 400º. Use a rimmed baking sheet.
- Roll out pastry onto a sheet of parchment paper into a circle about ¼ inch thick. If it gets to warm to handle, place in the refrigerator for a few minutes.
Filling:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugars, salt and cornstarch. Add rhubarb and peaches and stir until combined. Spoon the fruit over the pastry leaving a 1-2 inch border. Pull up sides over the edge of the fruit.
- Whisk egg and 1 tablespoon of water and brush over the crust. Sprinkle with sanding sugar.
- Bake for 45 minutes until the rhubarb has softened and the crust is golden brown. If the crust begins to get to brown, cover with foil.
- Let cool slightly before cutting.
Barbara’s Tips + Notes
- Place a pan under the galette in the oven in case it oozes out of the pastry
- Don’t overfill the pie crust.
- If the crust is starting to brown and the rhubarb is not soft, cover the crust with aluminum foil.
- If the dough gets too warm it can be hard to form. Place it in the refrigerator for a few minutes before assembling.
- If your fruit is very juicy, add a little more cornstarch.
- Let the galette sit for a few minutes before serving, the filling will thicken as it cools making it easier to slice.
Nutrition
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Delicious! I even made it with gluten free flour and replaced the cornstarch with arrowroot starch.
How much of the arrowroot starch did you use, I’ve never used it before.