friday appetizers (4/52)

We were invited over to a friend's for drinks on Friday night, so we decided to take our food on the road again for this weekend's New Year's resolution to "host" a meal every week with friends.



I have been on a huge bread baking kick lately, trying to perfect the art of making a beautiful artisan loaf. In the past two weeks, I've made no fewer than 14 loaves of breads, rolls and the like. Some straight up, rustic baguettes, others filled with anything from beets to sun dried tomatoes to goat cheese to combinations thereof.



This loaf is a peasant loaf with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes folded in before baking, the tomatoes giving the loaf a beautiful golden red color. We hungrily dunked thick slices of the bread into olive oil infused with sun dried tomatoes, black pepper and salt, and dipped a few pieces into humous.



And for dessert - a meyer lemon blueberry galette. The sweet blueberries and tart meyer lemon marmalade (homemade!) were a lovely pairing that really brought some lightness and thoughts of summer to a dreary January night.



The pastry crust was a beautiful golden brown, with a beautiful flake, but substantial enough to hold in all of the delicious juices of the berries.



The only thing that could have made the galette better was a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, fresh whipped cream, or slightly sweetened coconut milk whipped cream.

Meyer Lemon Blueberry Galette

I love make rustic galettes, so easy, yet impressive, and 1/2 the work of making a pie!

Ingredients::

1 homemade pie dough

3 cups frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons organic corn starch

1/4 cup organic cane sugar

3 tablespoons meyer lemon marmalade

1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

1 tablespoon coconut oil/butter

2 tablespoons meyer lemon marmalade for topping

Whipped cream (coconut or dairy) - optional

Ice cream - optional

To prepare::
In a small bowl, heat the marmalade (stovetop or microwave) until liquid. Mix blueberries, corn starch sugar, marmalade and vanilla into a bowl until blueberries are evenly coated.
Roll pie dough into a 10-12 inch round and spoon filling onto dough, leaving 1.5 inches of dough free of filling. Fold over and crimp the edges of the dough around the filling, leaving a large opening on top. Dot the top of the filling with the coconut oil or butter. Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 425* for 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden and the filling is bubbly. If necessary, put tin foil over the curst the last 5-8 minutes of baking if browning too quickly.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons marmalade until liquid. Brush the top of the filling with marmalade when done baking. Top with whipped cream or ice cream.