This galette takes all those delicious flavours from a caprese salad and encases them in a golden and flakey garlic confit and sour cream puff pastry. Finished off with a drizzling of Rich Glen’s sweet and sticky balsamic glaze, this tomato galette proves everything is made better with puff pastry.
Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Galette
While tomato season is ending for all my American friends, it’s only just beginning for us down in the southern hemisphere. This galette takes advantage of summer flavours with sweet basil, juicy and plump tomatoes and creamy mozzarella. A galette is an open faced pie and basically the lazy girl version of a pie. The thought of making your own puff pastry from scratch may sound intimidating but once you master the technique, and if I’m being honest there is very little technique involved, there is really nothing to it! You can fill a galette with anything you like from a buttery mushroom filling to a cheesy potato filling. While they are made to look rustic, they will impress any dinner party guest!
Garlic confit and sour cream puff pastry
What makes this galette even better is that it uses garlic confit, and lots of it! Not only is it in the filling but it’s also in the pastry. Thanks to its smooth and velvet like texture, the garlic confit has been rolled into layers of buttery pastry making sure each and every bite comes with a small taste of garlic. This garlic confit and sour cream puff pastry is so versatile that you can fill it with pretty much anything you like! Check out my buttery mushroom tart and cheesy potato tart.
How to make the best puff pastry
I’ll admit, the idea of making puff pastry used to terrify me! But it’s not as hard as you think. Especially when you follow my tips.
Brrr it’s cold in here – freeze your ingredients and also your tools for making puff pastry 20 minutes prior to making your puff pastry. Yes, this includes your bowl, grater and even fork! Cold temperatures means everything when making puff pastry and by placing your butter and tools into the freezer beforehand, you will keep it at the coldest possible temperature when making your dough.
Cheese graters aren’t just for cheese – a little trick I learnt along the way is to grate your butter. This will make it much easier for you to break the butter into the flour with your finger tips and evenly distribute the butter across the flour.
Layering – to get those beautiful flakey layers it’s important you layer your dough. This means rolling the dough out flat, cutting it into thirds and placing each layer on top of the other while pushing the dough back into a flat square. Repeat this step 3 times.
Work fast – It’s impossible to stop the temperature of the cold butter going down a few notches in degrees which is why I recommend working quickly when making your dough!
My tips for the best galette
Use in season produce – as this galette filling is very simple and doesn’t rely on overcomplicated flavours, I recommend using produce that in season. The tomatoes should be plump and juicy while the basil is sweet. I always like to splurge on my tomatoes and use heirloom ones as not only do they taste great, but they look extremely impressive!
Boarder – leave a big enough boarder so your galette will have a chunky and crispy crust! Sometimes you can overfill your galette and it will leave you with a tiny crust (the crust is my favourite part) or even worse, it could break out of the crust and make it rather soggy.
Egg-cellent – brush the dough with an egg to ensure it gets that golden colour.
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This recipe is sponsored by Rich Glen Olive Oil.
Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Galette
Ingredients
Garlic Confit
- 6 heads garlic
- 3 cups Rich Glen Olive Oil
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
Garlic confit & sour cream puff pastry
- 2 cups white all purpose flour
- 1 tsp flakey sea salt
- 150 g butter salted
- 200 ml sour cream
- 12 garlic confit cloves
- 1 egg for brushing the pastry
Tomato filling
- 8 garlic confit cloves
- 1 heirloom tomato 1 large tomato or 2 medium sized
- 8 fresh basil leaves + extra for serving
- 125 g buffalo mozzarella
- 2 tsp Rich Glen Olive Oil
- 1 tsp flakey sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp Rich Glen Balsamic Glaze
Instructions
Garlic Confit
- Preheat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius.
- Peel the garlic by breaking the cloves away and placing them into a heatproof bowl. Submerge in boiling hot water for 5 minutes and drain. The skin will become loose and easy to peel away.
- Place the garlic cloves and thyme into an ovenproof dish and fully submerge in olive oil. It's important the garlic is fully submerged in the olive oil so it does not burn. Bake for 2 hours or until the garlic has browned in colour.
- Allow to slightly cool and store in an airtight container or jar for up to several weeks in the fridge.
Garlic confit & sour cream puff pastry
- Chill a large bowl, grater and the butter in the freezer for 20 minutes before making your pastry. Combine the flour and salt into the chilled bowl and mix together with a fork. Grate the butter on the chilled grater and add to the flour. Break the butter into the flour with your fingertips until you have a pebble like crumbly texture. You can do this by pinching and rubbing the butter and flour between your fingers.
- Create a well in the centre of the flour and add in the sour cream and garlic confit cloves. Use a fork to combine the flour, sour cream and garlic confit until most of the flour is moist.
- Lightly dust your kitchen bench or working surface with flour and mould your dough into a rough disc shape. The dough should be firm and moist but not sticky. You want just enough moisture so the dough is barely sticking to itself. If it needs more moisture slightly wet your hands when working with it or if it’s too dry, lightly dust it with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a thick rectangle shape. Cut the rectangle into thirds and stack each piece of dough on top of each other. Roll them into each other with the rolling pin. Repeat this step two times until the dough is smooth.
- Divide the dough into two and wrap each piece in glad wrap. You will only need half of the dough for this recipe. The dough will keep in the fridge for 2 days and in the freezer for 3 months. Leave the dough to rest for a minimum of 1 hour or ideally overnight.
Tomato filling & galette assembly
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius fan forced / 180 degrees Celsius conventional.
- Slice the tomatoes. If they are juicy and have a lot of liquid, place them onto absorbent paper and salt them. Leave to sit for 10 minutes to remove the excess moisture.
- Take one disc of puff pastry dough out of the fridge. Sprinkle your kitchen bench or working surface with flour and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a large circle shape that is roughly 4mm thick. Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and then place it onto a pre-lined baking tray.
- Leaving a 4cm boarder around the edge of the dough, spread the garlic confit cloves onto the bottom of the dough. In a circular pattern, place the sliced pieces of mozzarella on top of the garlic confit, followed by the basil leaves and lastly the slices of tomato. Season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Fold in the overhanging pastry, pinching the dough together to form a rustic circle shape.
- Whisk the egg and brush all parts of the dough with it. This will help create a lovely golden colour while your galette bakes.
- Bake the tart for 30 - 40 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the puff pastry is golden and crunchy. Leave to rest for 15 minutes before cutting into it as this will allow the filling to set. Finish off with a sprinkling of basil leaves and drizzle of balsamic glaze.
This was so good! I followed the recipe to perfection and it turned out awesome. I did get lazy and I skipped the step where you said to salt and pat tomatoes dry to remove some moisture and I wish I had not skipped this step. It is necessary!
I will definitely make this again.
I am so glad to hear that! I skip it too depending on how juicy my tomatoes are 🙂
I dont have time to make this garlic confit unfortunately.. what shall i do to replace it?
You can simple leave it out of the pastry!
Delicious! Made this with pesto, cheese, tomatoes, and balsamic glaze. Everyone loved it and the pastry was very easy.
Sounds so delicious!
I can’t find buffalo mozzarella by me. What other mozzarella can I substitute
Any mozzarella will work!