Mini Blueberry Galettes with Brown Sugar Mascarpone Cream

I’ve been on a bit of a pie kick recently, it’s all my Pinterest is full of. I can’t wait for Autumn to roll around so I can make a massive apple pie with the flakiest pie crust and lashings of hot custard.

I had a half batch of pie dough left in my freezer, from making my Cherry Lemon Meringue Pie a few weeks ago, that needed to be used up. I’m a big fan of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco and have always loved their fruit galettes.

So these are my blueberry galettes with brown sugar mascarpone cream and a hint of orange. They’re crisp, flaky, fruity and creamy. The orange just hums along in the background really marrying the blueberries with the brown sugar in the cream. I piped a thin layer of cream cheese underneath the filling to give it a bit of a cheesecake vibe. A lovely alternative to a big pie and quite pretty I think.

Ingredients - makes 12 mini galettes
Please note: you will only need half of this pie dough for these galettes. Feel free to make a half batch. I like to make the full batch and freeze half for another time.

Pie dough:
225g unsalted butter, cold/cubed
385g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
140-160ml ice water
1/2 tbsp vodka
demerara sugar, to top

Blueberry filling:
350g fresh blueberries 
60g caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 orange zest, plus a little more to garnish
1 tbsp orange juice
200g cream cheese

Brown Sugar Mascarpone Cream:
150g mascarpone 
100g double cream, plus a little more to brush on before baking
25g soft light brown sugar
1/4 tsp flaky salt

Method
For the pastry, place all the ingredients into a bowl apart from the water and vodka. Press and rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs with a few larger pieces of butter. Add in the 140ml of ice water along with the vodka. Mix the pastry together and add the remaining 20ml of water if needed. Tip the dough out of the bowl and knead it a few times to bring it together. It should have enough water that the flour is hydrated but not be sticky. It can have some dryer parts which will hydrate during resting. Pat the pastry into a disc. Cut it in half and place one piece on top of the other. Pat it back down and repeat. Pat the dough into a disc and cut it in half. Form each half into a disc and wrap them individually in clingfilm. Chill the pastry for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Freeze one of the halves for another time.

Once rested, roll the dough on a lightly floured worktop to approx. 0.75cm thick. Using a 4inch ring or cutter, cut out 12 discs, re-rolling and cutting as needed. Place the cut pastry onto a baking tray lined with parchment and chill in the fridge while you prepare the blueberry filling. Place all of the filling ingredients, apart from the cream cheese, into a bowl and toss together. Take a third of a cup of the blueberry filling and set aside for the glaze. Fill a piping bag with the cream cheese and take three pastry discs from the fridge.

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C. Pipe a thin swirl of cream cheese in the middle of each circle of pastry leaving a 2cm boarder around the edge. Place a small pile of the blueberry filling on top. Crimp the edges of the pie, overlapping and pushing them together building it upward rather than a flat crimp. If this is difficult, you can also just simply fold the edges up and over the filling for a more traditional, rustic finish. Place the crimped galettes onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Make sure they’re a couple of inches apart as they will spread. If you have any space inside the galette left, add some more blueberries. Continue with the rest of the pie discs. Brush the pastry edges with cream before sprinkling a generous amount of demerara sugar on top. Refrigerate the galettes for 10 minutes before baking.

While the galettes chill, take the third of a cup of blueberry filling that you reserved earlier and place it into a saucepan with a few tbsp of water. Mix and place it over low heat. Cook for a few minutes until the blueberries have cooked down and you have a glossy blueberry compote. Set aside until needed.

Bake the galettes for 30-35 minutes until golden and puffed. Don’t worry, they’ll fall briefly before puffing up. Leave the galettes to cool for 5 minutes before taking a pastry brush and brushing the tops with the warm blueberry glaze. Leave to cool completely.

When you’re ready to serve the galettes, whisk together all the ingredients for the mascarpone cream. Place a quenelle of the cream on top of each mini pie using a hot spoon. Finely grate some orange zest on top and serve. Best served soon after being finished but they can be kept in the fridge for 3 days.