Blueberry Cheesecake Galette

 

I must confess that I am a bit intimidated by pies, so when I was stumbled upon this recipe on Kitchen Meets Girl I was intrigued.

Of course, I must also confess that I had never even heard the term Galette, much less knew what it was. Ashley (the Girl that Met the Kitchen noted above) conveniently described a Galette as "basically a round, flat, free-form crusty pastry.  I call it an open-face, easy to make and quick to get to my pie-hole…well, pie."

So a pie-like pastry without the pie-like intimidation moved this goodness to Recipe #1 on Operation Blueberry Madness 2014.

Blueberry Cheesecake Galette

Ingredients

• 1 refrigerated pie crust
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 1 large egg, beaten, plus 1 egg yolk
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Coarse sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Unroll the refrigerated pie crust and place it on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until ready to use.
2. While your pie crust is chilling, make your blueberry filling: in a medium bowl, toss together the blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch and salt.
3. In a separate bowl make your cheesecake filling: whisk together cream cheese, egg yolk, the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the nutmeg.
4. Spread half of the cheesecake mixture over the top of the unrolled pie crust, leaving a 1 ½ inch border. Top with blueberries, and fold the edges of the crust over the filling. Spread the rest of the cheesecake mixture over the top of the berries and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Place an inverted cookie sheet in the lower third of your oven and preheat oven to 425. Brush the edges of the crust with a beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar (like sugar in the raw). Place baking sheet with the galette on it directly on top of the inverted cookie sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust is golden. Allow to cool slightly before slicing.

 

 

My Notes to Recipe & Instructions

• I have no idea what a Silpat-lined baking sheet, so I used parchment paper. (Yes, I realize I could Google that and sound far less novice... maybe later.) I used the Pampered Chef baking stone and kept the parchment paper beneath it for baking. The crust was absolutely perfect after bottom rack, 20 minutes... the parchment though was burned to a cindered ash-crisp. Not sure if that was related to the stone or the temp, but duly noted to not bake it on the paper next time.

 

• Fold the full 1.5 inches of border crust in and over the edges of the filling. This gap with instructions caused me great confusion for some reason, making me have to undo and re-do the fold, and not ending up with anything particularly lovely.

 

• This is not a "hearty" dessert. In a family of 3.5, it is gone as quick as it is made. The pic makes it look far more "deep dish" than the reality. Cameron actually picked up his slice to eat pizza-style... It is delish though!