Butternut Squash & Caramelized Onion Gallette

Butternut squash has been very plentiful lately, but recently I have become very tired of the usual: butternut squash soup, roasted butternut squash, or squash casserole. Yummy, all, but I was bored with the tried and true.

Happily, I found a recipe for a "Butternut Squash & Carmelized Onion Gallette" on a foodie site: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/10/butternut-squash-and-caramelized-onion-galette/

With squash on the counter and few ideas, I decided to try the recipe. The pictures on the site of the dish weren't terribly inspiring but I thought, I'll give it a go.

It was delicious and very tasty, but I thought that I could make the recipe simpler and also make the gallette much prettier than the one on the site. See my finished product, above.

NOTES: you can use more or less squash, depending on what you have, but when I made the recipe once with only 1 medium sized squash, it wasn't as good as when I used 2 medium squash. Also, don't forget the sugar, I did, once, and it really made a difference!

Here's  my recipe:

Butternut Squash and Carmelized Onion Gallette:


Ingredients:


For crust:
1 1/4 cups flour (I used unbleached whole wheat pastry flour, but any wheat flour will do)
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick (8 Tbs) very cold butter, cut into chunks
1/4 cup ice water (put an ice cube in a 1 cup liquid measuring cup, then fill with cold water up to 1/4/cup)
1/4 cup light sour cream
2 tsp fresh lemon juice (cut a lemon in half, dump the seeds and squeeze a teaspoon from each half)




For Filling:
1 large butternut squash OR 2 small butternut squash, peeled (I used a veggie peeler), seeded and cut into small, 1/2 inch chunks
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt


One very large white or yellow sweet onion (cut in half, then sliced very thin into half moon slices. The thinner the better)
2 Tbs butter (not margarine)
1/8 tsp sugar

2 tsps fresh sage, chopped fine
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

3/4 cup baby swiss cheese (or fontina, or your favorite melting but strong cheese), cut into very small chunks or grated.


1)  Mix pastry crust:  Mix sour cream and lemon juice into the cold water, stir until no lumps of cream appear. Place flour, salt and butter chunks into a cuisineart with the sharp blade in the bowl. Pulse until the butter is incorporated and the flour is crumbly. (If you don't have a cuisineart, cut the butter into the flour/salt mix with a pastry cutter or 2 knives until crumbly). Pour the liquid into the cuisineart and pulse until all flour is wet, but DO NOT overmix. (By hand, pour liquid into a well in the center of the flour, mix with a fork making sure that all flour is wet, but don't over mix). Place in a plastic bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.


2) a: Make squash filling: Preheat oven to 375F.  Mix squash chunks with the olive oil to coat, sprinkle on the 1 tsp salt. Line a flat pan or sheet with either foil or parchment paper, and layer the chunks in one layer on the pan. Roast in oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until fork tender but not too soft. Roast longer with bigger chunks, less time with smaller chunks.


2) b: Caramelize the Onions: Melt 2 Tbs butter in a medium frying pan, then add the onions. Over medium heat, cook the onions, stirring often, until they are nicely browned and caramelized. Add sugar, cayenne pepper and sage. Leave onions in frying pan but remove from heat.


3) When squash is done, remove from oven and dump the squash into the unheated frying pan with the onions and spices. Stir to mix the onions carefully with the squash. Add the cheese and mix to incorporate all the items evenly. ( I prefer to sprinkle the cheese onto the top of the mound of squash before making the dough border, then the cheese melts down into the squash).


4) Form pastry crust:  Place the cold pastry dough on a well floured very flat surface, turn to coat well with flour, and form with your hands into a round flat disc, about 5 inched wide and 1 inch in depth.  Roll dough into a uniformly flat 12 inch circle. Try to make sure that your edges are not too flat, roll from center out and don't press too hard as your rolling pin gets to the edges. Turn dough over at least once as you roll, and continue dusting with flour so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin or surface.  Dough will snap back a bit, so if you make an edge too thin or raggedy, push the edge in towards the center with your fingers and lightly roll over the edge to make uniform. 

5) Preheat oven to 400F.  Place a piece of parchment paper about 12 inches square on a flat cookie sheet.  Fold dough in half, then in half again (triangle shaped) and carefully place on the parchment paper, placing the point of the folded dough exactly in the center of the paper. Unfold the dough carefully, stretching if needed to make a good circle.

6) Mound the onion/squash mix into the center of the circle of dough, leaving 1 to 2 inches of dough uncovered. Fold the dough up and around the edges of the squash filling, making a border of dough around an open interior of squash. Pleate the dough carefully over the sides of the squash mound to make the dough border. Hint: if you have thin edges, fold the thin edges into a thicker pleat and leave the thicker edges unpleated or loosely pleated.


 Here's what it should look like before baking, below:

7) Bake @ 400F 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from sheet onto a plate. To serve, cut in wedges. Can be either reheated in a hot oven (10 minutes) or microwaved later. Enjoy!

Cupcakes!

I love to bake. I like to bake more than I like to cook. Cakes and cupcakes are a lot more fun to make than a pot roast, and you can even decorate the cupcakes for the season. A chunk of meat is, well, just a chunk of cooked meat, even if it is tasty.

When my children were small, I had an L shaped kitchen with a bar to the side where they would perch on the stools and lean over the counter to help me mix and shape cookies and of course, taste the dough. I like to think that as dough connoisseurs, we know even before something is baked if it is going to taste scrumptious. My son has become the world's best chocolate chip cookie baker; my daughter has started her own small catering business: making cupcakes for her friends for special occasions.

She's made cupcakes for weddings, valentines' day parties, little and big girl birthday parties, 

wedding showers, office parties and just for fun.

She makes red devil or carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, vanilla or lemon creme cupcakes with vanilla frosting, chocolate and chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  The cupcakes are made from scratch, never from a box. She decorates them with an eye to the type of party - but they are always delicious. Whatever the client wants, she can bake!

Here's our favorite recipe for carrot cake cupcakes. If you just want a great tasting cake, this recipe makes a wonderful single layer round cake, frosted with cream cheese frosting.

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Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

makes 8 to 10 cupcakes or 1 8-inch round cake layer

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease cupcake or muffin cups well with shortening, or place paper cupcake holders in each cup. Paper cupcake holders work best.  If preferred, cake can be baked in one round 8 inch pan, greased, and with a cut out parchment paper round placed on the bottom of the pan, also greased and floured. 

Carrot Cake Cupcakes (or single layer cake)

Mix together and reserve in a bowl:

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsps cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Mix well in a large mixing bowl:

2/3 cup canola oil

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs @ room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

Grate and reserve:

1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Add flour mixture to sugar & egg mix and mix lightly. Add grated carrots and

1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

Fold nuts and carrots lightly until incorporated. Do not mix too much, cake will be too heavy.

Pour into prepared pan.

For cupcakes, bake 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For round cake, bake 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a cake rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the cake rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Beat:

3 oz. cream cheese

With

1 1/2 Tbls. cream or half & half

1 tsp vanilla

Slowly incorporate and beat well:

1 to 2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

To ice the cupcakes:

Spoon the frosting into cake decorating bags (if you don't have any of these, you can use a large ziplock bag - just spoon the frosting into the corner of one of the bags).  Snip off the tip of the bag, making a small hole (or snip the corner of the ziplock bag) to pipe the frosting onto the top of the cupcake. If you want to be more creative, snip a jagged edge on the tip or corner, the piping will not be smooth but will have swirls.  Start with a small snip/hole, if you need to go bigger, you can snip more, but if the hole is already too big, you'll have to remove the frosting into another bag.  Squeeze the frosting out of the bag in a swirling, circular fashion on top of the cupcake. Decorate with nut halves or sprinkles.  NOTE: If you want to color the frosting, spoon 1/2 of the frosting into one bag, then use food coloring to tint the remainder. Pipe the white frosting first, then spoon the tinted frosting into another bag and snip the corner with a very tiny hole for piping or writing. 

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