Peach Galette

For dough, use all but­ter and omit lard, if desired. You can use any ten­der fruit for this: plums, apri­cots, nec­tarines or cher­ries. Local fruit in sea­son is best. If using plums or apri­cots, dou­ble amount of sugar in fill­ing. You can peel peaches by the old-fashioned method — plung­ing them in boil­ing water for a minute or two — or buy one of the excel­lent ser­rated peel­ers now avail­able includ­ing the One-Touch battery-operated device I found at Cana­dian Tire. The lat­ter method is eas­ier and pre­vents the peaches from leak­ing juice. This makes a large pie — enough for a crowd and ideal for a sum­mer gathering.

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp gran­u­lated sugar
¾ cup diced cold but­ter
¼ cup cold lard
6 to 8 tbsp iced water

Almond Layer:
½ cup ground almonds
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp light brown or organic cane sugar

Peach Fill­ing:
About 6 cups sliced, pit­ted, peeled ripe peaches (about eight)
3 tbsp light brown or organic cane sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp lemon juice

Glaze and gar­nish:
1 egg, beaten with a lit­tle milk
1 tbsp gran­u­lated sugar
¼ cup peach, apri­cot or apple jelly, melted
About ½ cup sliced almonds, toasted *

For dough, com­bine flour and sugar in food proces­sor. Add but­ter; pulse 5 to 6 times to break up but­ter roughly. Add lard; pulse a few times or until mix­ture resem­bles coarse crumbs. Grad­u­ally add water through feeder tube until mix­ture begins to clump. Form dough into ball; wrap in plas­tic wrap and chill about 1 hour.

Pre­heat oven to 400F.

For Almond Layer, com­bine all ingre­di­ents in small bowl.

For Peach Fill­ing, com­bine all ingre­di­ents in large bowl.

Roll out dough on floured sur­face to about 15 inches in diam­e­ter. Place on large round pizza or other bak­ing pan. Spread almond mix­ture evenly over dough. Mound peach mix­ture in mid­dle of dough leav­ing about 2 inches of dough around it. Fold edges of dough, pleat­ing at inter­vals, on top of peaches. Brush edges of dough with egg mix­ture, then sprin­kle with sugar.

Bake in oven about 40 to 50 min­utes or until pie is golden brown. Cool. Spread melted jelly over peaches with pas­try brush. Sprin­kle with toasted almonds. Serve with ice cream, thick­ened yogurt or crème fraiche.

Makes about 8 to 12 servings.

* To toast almonds, cook in dry skil­let over low heat about 5 min­utes or until golden brown.

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