Strawberry Crostata with Candied Ginger

June 15, 2017

We were given a bag of the tiniest, sweetest little strawberries this week-end by family. They had grown them in their garden, which was beautifully overflowing. Truly, one of the best gifts! Mister Sive has been a tad under the weather, so I wanted to whip up a dessert but did not want to spend lots of time doing it as I was preparing dinner too. We had a sheet of puff pastry in the freezer calling my name. I have said this before, but will state again, puff pastry is magic in my book, and can be used to transform a host of things in no time at all. So a crostata or galette it would be. A galette or crostata (I often see them referred to interchangeably) is a rustic tart with hand-folded edges. You can put in tons of variation of fruit. Cherries at the moment would be divine.

Oven to 400. Take out puff pastry sheet to thaw while you cut up the fruit. Add the fruit to a bowl. Then sprinkle with sugar and a bit of lemon juice. This will all start drawing out some of the juices of the fruit. On a parchment lined baking sheet add the puff pastry sheet. Cut the edges to make the sheet somewhat rounded. It by no means needs to be perfect. We are going for rustic. Sprinkle the entire sheet of puff pastry with sugar, then add your fruit. We had some candied ginger so I cut that up and sprinkled some of that about for an unexpected bit of flavor. If you don’t have candied ginger around, no sweat. Will still be super lovely without it. Then fold the sheet over the outer edges of the fruit creating a little package, while still seeing the fruit in the center. Brush all the exposed puff pastry with an egg wash, then give all of that egg washed area a final dusting of sugar. Trust me on this, you will be happy you did. Bake in oven for 35 minutes or until all is nice and brown and puffy, checking at the half way point, turning the sheet pan around so things bake evenly. Seriously, could that not be easier? Add ice cream if desired. Pretty yummy solo too.