He stirs all of this by hand with a whisk and mixes in more air with strong strokes. The dough for the galettes, culinary classics from the northwest of France, is ready.
You can surprise your guests at home with this on a Brittany evening. Butter and a variety of ingredients should not be missing. But one by one.
Special taste thanks to buckwheat flour
Galettes could be mistaken for salty crepes because they are just as thin. That may be true in principle, but it is wrong because the type of flour is different.
Instead of conventional wheat flour like for crepes, buckwheat flour is used, which is gluten-free. “Buckwheat flour gives a special taste,” says chef Frédérique Scherlin, who follows her grandparents’ tradition in the creperie “Sous le Vent” near the port of Trébeurden.
“They also ran a creperie in Brittany, and I got my recipes from them,” says the 48-year-old, who has almost four decades of experience making galettes: “The first ones were created under my grandmother’s supervision when I was nine years old .»
Once a poor man’s meal
“Galettes used to be poor people’s food; they were often prepared in the fireplace,” says Mickaël Paitel, looking into Brittany’s past. This would feed many hungry mouths. Galettes have long since become socially acceptable in restaurants and continue to whet Chef Paitel’s appetite. At his house they are on the menu three times a week on average.
Otherwise, the 56-year-old knows how to prepare them wonderfully in the creperie “À l’Essentiel” in the coastal town of Plouescat. His experience says: “It is best if the dough rests for six hours.”
Pan with low sides
Madame Scherlin’s basic recipe looks a little different than Monsieur Paitel’s: 500 grams of flour, four eggs, 40 milliliters of sunflower oil, two teaspoons of salt, 500 milliliters of water. She always stirs the whole thing by hand, “so that I have contact with the mixture.” That’s what my grandparents did.
When the dough is ready, use a ladle to pour a small amount onto a hot round plate, spread the mixture quickly with a wooden spatula and brown it. Including a twist, it takes a minute, two at the most. This requires complete concentration. “If you don’t have a plate, you can also use a pan. “It should be as large as possible and have a low edge,” advises Scherlin.
Glitter through butter
The finished flatbreads are first stacked on a plate. Now it’s time to decide what to fill the galettes with.
Mickaël Paitel demonstrates in his kitchen how to properly make this hearty filling meal. He puts a flatbread back on the hot plate (alternatively: in the pan) and cracks a raw egg into the middle. He sprinkles a small handful of grated cheese around the egg, adds two slices of cooked ham and sautéed onions and spreads a little of the liquid egg white.
Then he takes a kitchen brush, brushes the remaining areas with melted butter and folds the flatbread into a square – so that only the egg yolk, which is now finished, sticks out decoratively at the top. New brush strokes of liquid butter are applied to the outer layers. “It makes the galettes sparkle beautifully,” says Paitel, adding: “For us Bretons, the butter is always salty.”
Occupied or filled
With various recipes, chef Scherlin likes to use galettes as a bed, so to speak, and top them with exquisite ingredients. Like scallops, either with pure sea flavor or flambéed in whiskey.
That doesn’t suit her professional colleague Paitel’s taste. He loves fillings and immediately adds the argument for this: “Everything stays warm inside much better.” You can fill a galette with almost anything, he says, and just uses three slices of salmon for one order. Other examples are: vegetables, raclette or goat cheese, mushrooms with garlic and herbs.
Secret recipe and cult drink
When it comes to special fillings, Pascal Jugan comes into play, with whom Paitel alternates in the kitchen at the creperie “À l’Essentiel”. Jugan reveals his secret recipe for a galette that he named “Pourleth”. To do this, he cooks half a kilo of chopped chicken breast pieces and 100 grams of chorizo (Spanish pepper-garlic sausage) “like a ragout” for 30 to 45 minutes.
Additional seasoning is added with garlic, parsley, chives, a larger pinch of pepper (he uses Madagascar pepper and his own mixture of allspice), lemon. Separately, he steams half a kilo of mushrooms with a dash of white wine. In the end, everything – including 160 milliliters of creme fraiche – ends up in a single pot. Leave to simmer on low heat for a quarter of an hour and the tasty filling material is ready.
Now there’s only one thing missing from the meal – the ideal accompaniment. “Cidre, of course,” says Mickaël Paitel. The sparkling cider is the cult drink in Brittany.