It’s that time of year when I buy more fruit than I can eat. There’s just so much amazing fruit in season…peaches, plums, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries…I try to eat as much as I can. But ultimately I end up with some that’s…shall we say, “overripe”? That’s where this recipe comes from. I took all of the close-to-rotting fruit from my fridge, added some sugar, wrapped it in pastry, and baked it.
My friends lovingly refer to this treat as “fridge trash pie,” but I doubt anyone would search for that in Google, so I decided to call it Fridge Cleanout Galette. But you could also call it Any Fruit Galette.
Pick Your Flavor, Any Flavor
You can truly use any kind of fruit you like in this rustic pie. one of my current favorite combos—the one in the photos—is mango, strawberry, and nectarine. I wouldn’t have thought to put that combination together, but that’s what was in my fridge that needed to be used up, so I just tossed it all into a pie crust…and boy am I glad I did!
That’s what’s so fun about an Any Fruit Galette—you can easily play around with different flavor combinations using whatever you have on hand. And it’ll work with frozen fruit as well as fresh—just thaw it out and drain it well first.
Depending on the fruit you use, some will have enough natural pectin to thicken the juice on its own when you bake it; others will need a little help. This article by The Spruce Eats has a great list of which fruits have a lot of pectin and which don’t. If you’re using lower-pectin fruits, you can add a couple tablespoons of cornstarch or even flour to the sugar and spice mixture as a thickener.
You can also switch up the spices or flavorings you use. The recipe calls for 1/4 tsp of a spice, and it can be any spice you want: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, or ginger, for instance. Or swap it out for a splash of an extract like vanilla, orange flower water, or rose water. Basically, whatever spice or flavoring you think will taste best with the fruit you’re using will work.
The recipe calls for a few tablespoons of jam as well, spread onto the crust beneath the fruit. This is another area where you can play around with flavor—use any kind of jam you want, or swap it out for nutella or dulce de leche (like I did in this Caramel Apple Galette).
Tips for Making Your Best Crust
The biggest trick to flaky pie crust is to keep your butter nice and COLD. That way, when the crust hits the hot oven, the butter melts quickly and the water in it evaporates, leaving little pockets. Those little pockets mean flaky, flaky pie crust.
To get extra layers of flakiness, simply add a couple of folds into your crust-making process, like so:
- Mix up your crust, leaving the butter in big, flat chunks about the size of grapes. Then let it chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Then, roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thick and do your first of two folds: fold the dough in half, then in half again. Wrap it back up and pop it in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
- Repeat the rolling and folding one more time, then chill for at least 30 minutes before using your dough.
And then just roll out your dough as usual. Easy, right? And you end up with insane layers.
But if you don’t want to go through all of that bother, you don’t have to. You’ll still have a deliciously flaky crust if you just follow the simpler instructions in the recipe below.
Use Up Your Fruit in the Most Delicious Way
So clean out your fridge with this Any Fruit Galette, and play around with different flavors based on what you have on hand. This galette is easy, quick, and delicious no matter what flavor combo you choose.
Let me know what flavors you try, and how it turns out for you in the comments below!
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Fridge Cleanout Galette (a.k.a., Any Fruit Galette)
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
- pinch salt
- 1/2 c (1 stick) cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 3-6 T ice cold water
Filling
- 2-3 T apricot jam (or your favorite flavor)
- 4-6 c fruit, cut or sliced into similarly-sized pieces
- 4-6 T sugar, (less for sweeter fruit; more for tart fruit)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, or vanilla extract
- 2 T cornstarch or flour, optional—for thickening
- 1 T milk or cream (non-dairy milk works too)
- coarse sparkling sugar, optional
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Add butter cubes and toss to coat in flour. Pinch butter cubes into flour, leaving them in fairly large pieces (roughly about the size of grapes, but flat. Big chunks of butter = flakier crust)
- Drizzle cold water into mixture a little at a time, gently stirring with a fork or your hands until it all combines into a rough ball of dough. Add a T or two more water if your dough feels too dry. Gently press dough into a ball, then flatten with your hands. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375°F.After dough has chilled for 1 hour, roll fairly thin on a lightly floured surface. Then fold in half, then in half again. Gently form dough into a ball again, then roll out a second time (this folding = more flakiness!). This time, you want your dough round to be about 12" in diameter. Place dough round on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Spread jam in a thin layer, beginning at the center of the dough circle and working your way out toward the edge, leaving about 2" of dough uncovered around the edge.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, your desired spice, and cornstarch or flour if you're using it. Add to the fruit in a large bowl, stirring until combined. Arrange fruit on top of the jam.
- Fold the edges of the dough up over the fruit, leaving a gap in the center so the filling shows through. The edges of the dough will overlap. Brush the edges of the pie crust with the 1T of milk, and sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar (if desired).
- Bake for 50 min–1 hour, until center is bubbling and edges are nicely browned. Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool.