The Gift: Galette Bressane

I received a call from someone who was working on a travel itinerary for her employer that included a stop in Lyon. He was a restauranteur taking two of his key people on a discovery tour for inspiration and ideas through France. I figured anyone willing to take his people on a tour like that was someone I'd like to meet. I trotted down to Les Halles to meet them and discovered within the first 10 minutes that these men were extremely interesting people to be around. They focused diligently on things that for many people might just be a detail that fades into a general landscape. They appreciated and wanted to discuss at length the things that interested me the most, and had plenty of great thought provoking questions. They didn't realize it but their devotion to their work lifted my spirits and made me feel less alone. You know how sometimes you put all of your effort into something and then have that hollow "maybe this is crazy" feeling? Our conversations, their questions, remembering what I am doing this for, it all served as a fond benchmark for the creative demands I was presented with in the weeks that followed. I remembered my purpose in the midst of a whole lot of chaos, in other words. I was grateful for their having found me at that particular time, and at the same time could not find words to express this gratitude.

I was recently re-contacted by one of these men, a chef working on a fantastic new project, a restaurant that runs entirely on wood-fired ovens. If you know me and my passion for wood oven cooking, you understand how much I adore this project. He was asking if I could give him a recipe for that Galette Bressane we tasted on the last day of their visit.

There are many places to get a good galette Bressane in Lyon, which is kind of like a sugar and cream topped flattened brioche, light and fluffy but possessing a cake like moistness, deliciously filling that little hole in the belly on cold mornings like these. One is on Wednesday evenings at the market on Place Carnot, and the other is at a bakery on rue St. Jean in the 5th arrondissement.

The cake itself has its beginnings in the flat country north of Lyon where they raise those lovely blue-footed flavorful chickens and are famous for their excellent butter and cream. This is the country where La Mere Brazier spent her childhood working on farms in the countryside in exchange for room and board, as was the custom for children who were a financial burden to struggling widows. I know it sounds terrible but this was the reality for many children not that long ago. She dictated a memoir (she wasn't very good at writing) in the 1970s before she passed away, where she recounts her only food-related childhood memory. She remembered being given a slice of a Galette Bressane coming out of the kitchen of the farm where she was working and most of all, she remembers sitting in a field, eating it, and feeling grateful.

It's my pleasure to share this Galette, I bet it will be delicious coming from a wood fired oven too.

Galette Bressane

Serves 4

Notes: If you're baking in the States, I would recommend cake flour because the texture of the galette strikes a delicate balance, one that will be more easily achieved with a lower gluten flour. If you're cooking this with American flour, you might also consider tweaking the flour weight by reducing it slightly for the same reason, to get your perfect version.

For the brioche (400g):

6 ounces by weight or 170g flour
2 eggs with water added to weigh a total of 130 grams
3/4 cup or 80 grams butter, room temp
2 tablespoons or about 20 grams granulated sugar
10 grams bakers yeast
1 generous pinch salt



La garniture:

1 egg
20 grams or about 3 heaping tablespoons crème fraîche or whipping cream
20 grams or about 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

One day before serving: Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the salt, sugar, and yeast, and then incorporate the eggs, beaten, one at a time into the dry ingredients, to create a dough that separates from the edge of the bowl. Add water if your eggs are on the small side.

Add the butter cut into tablespoons and work it in until it is fully incorporated. Knead this dough for another 5 minutes by hand. Leave at room temperature for 45 minutes before covering and refrigerating overnight.



The day of serving, line a baking sheet with parchment. Place the ball of dough into the center and press flat by hand to about 1/4 inch thick. Let rise for 2 hours in a warm place free of drafts.

When the dough has doubled in volume, pinch a border about 1 cm or 1/2 inch high and prick the center at regular intervals with a fork. Lightly beat the egg and paint the surface inside the raised border completely. Avoid letting egg drip outside of the border, because doing so will keep the tarte edges from rising evenly in the oven.



Add salt to the cream and whip it for a minute or two with a whisk, if using whipping cream, beat it until stiff. Spread it evenly over the surface of the tarte and sprinkle the sugar evenly over that. Bake in a hot oven (230C or 450F) 8 to 10 minutes. Verify its doneness by lifting the edge of the tarte with a spatula and checking the color underneath, it should be only slightly browned.

Place the galette on a cooling rack and let cool completely before serving.