Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Galettes, All Day Baking: Savoury, Not Sweet by Michael James with Pippa James. Photography by Lisa Cohen.
For every two lovers of sweet baked treats, there is at least another who will take the gruyère gougère or the curry pastie every time, thank you. All Day Baking: Savoury, Not Sweet is a baking cookbook—at last—for them.
Its mission is to deliver comforting, inventive and wholegrain-forward ideas for pies, sausage rolls, pasties and myriad other mostly pastry-based recipes, alongside gutsy accompaniments that equip the reader with the tools to transform delicious bakes into nourishing any-time-of-day meals.
Author Michael James is a Michelin-restaurant chef by training who was drawn early to the art, precision, and satisfaction of baking. In All Day Baking, his second book, he turns his attention to the pasties of his UK childhood, the pies he creates today for his young family, and the quiches, sausage rolls, palmiers and galettes that have earned him a cultish following around the world. As well, he delivers a master class in pastry—from puff to rye to vegan and gluten-free—gifting readers a foundation knowledge that sets them on a path to their own freewheeling baking adventures.
The book is structured across the arc of a day but the recipes at their heart are interchangeable—if you fancy beetroot & shallot galette for breakfast or bacon & onion quiche for dinner—that’s perfectly ok. And throughout there is a nod to Michael and wife Pippa James’ ethos, rooted in sustainability, seasonality and a desire to minimize their waste footprint.
All Day Baking: Savoury, Not Sweet is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca.
Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Galettes
MAKES 2; SERVES 6
EASY TO ADAPT
MAKE IT GLUTEN-FREE
Use gluten-free flaky pastry
MAKE IT VEGAN
Use vegan flaky pastry, use vegan cheese
This is one of my favourite weeknight dinners. If you’re in the habit of a weekly meal preparation session, I recommend cooking the pumpkin and making the pastry ahead of time. Once those jobs are done, assembling the two galettes is quick, leaving you time for a cheeky pre-dinner drink while it bakes.
Stilton is my preferred cheese for this galette—it’s so creamy and perfectly robust against the sweetness of the pumpkin, but use any cheese you like. You can make many other galettes based on the ideas here: roasted beetroot, goat’s cheese and hazelnut; carrots roasted in za’atar with pecorino; sweet potato, harissa, preserved lemon and labne. Let your imagination run wild.
1 large butternut pumpkin (squash) (approx. 1.5 kg/ 3 lb 5 oz)
50 g (1¾ oz/2½ tablespoons) olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
fine salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 quantity Wholemeal flaky
shortcrust pastry (see below)
Egg wash (see below)
120 g (4½ oz) blue cheese
10 g (1⁄3 oz) pepitas (pumpkin seeds), lightly toasted
10 g (1⁄3 oz) sunflower seeds, lightly toasted
10 g (1⁄3 oz) sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1 small handful herbs, such as parsley, chervil and thyme
1 small handful salad leaves
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Cut the unpeeled pumpkin in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Put the pumpkin halves in a roasting tin, cut side up, drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover the tin with aluminium foil and bake for 1 hour, or until soft. Set aside to cool completely.
Put the pastry on a lightly floured kitchen bench and divide it into two equal pieces. Roll each piece into a disc 4 mm (1⁄8 in) thick. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Using a large dinner plate as a guide, cut out two rounds from the pastry 30–32 cm (12–12½ in) in diameter. Lightly score a circle 5 cm (2 in) in from the edge of the pastry. Refrigerate again for 30 minutes.
Mash the cooled roasted pumpkin into a rough purée, discarding the skin. Spoon half the purée over each pastry base and spread it out to meet the 5 cm (2 in) margin. Fold the margin of pastry in towards the centre, over the edge of the pumpkin, then crimp the pastry edges together to contain the filling. Lightly brush the exposed pastry border with egg wash.
Return the galettes to the fridge. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). To get the bottom of the pastries nicely browned and cooked through, put two baking trays in the oven to heat up, or use a pizza stone if you have one.
Slide the galettes on the baking paper onto the hot trays. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven to 180°C (360°F) and turn and swap the trays. Bake for a further 20–25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes, then crumble the blue cheese and sprinkle the seeds over the pumpkin. Finish with the herbs and salad leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.
FLAKY SHORTCRUST PASTRY
MAKES 700 G (1 LB 9 OZ)
This has been my go-to pastry for years. It’s perfect for lots of my favourite bakes, such as galettes, quiche or tops for pot pies. It is very easy to make and use, and it gives you a wonderfully light, flaky crust.
To increase the versatility, I have included variations for wholemeal and whole rye. Try any grains you can get your hands on and celebrate the difference in flavours.
If you want to add even more flavour, substitute the water with crème fraîche, sour cream or milk kefir. When using wholemeal or rye, the absorbency of the flour will differ, so check the dough as you mix and add more liquid if needed.
I recommend making the plain dough first so you get to know how the dough should feel. Once you’re comfortable with that, you can change the flours and liquids used, knowing what you’re aiming for.
225 g (8 oz) unsalted butter, chilled
350 g (12½ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
6 g (1∕5 oz/1 teaspoon) fine salt
120 g (4½ oz) chilled water
WHOLEMEAL VARIATION
225 g (8 oz) unsalted butter, chilled
250 g (9 oz) wholemeal (whole-wheat) or spelt flour
100 g (4 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
6 g (1∕5 oz/1 teaspoon) fine salt
140 g (5 oz) chilled water
WHOLE RYE VARIATION
225 g (8 oz) unsalted butter, chilled
180 g (6½ oz) rye flour or wholegrain rye flour
170 g (6 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
6 g (1∕5 oz/1 teaspoon) fine salt
140 g (5 oz) chilled water
Wholegrain flours absorb more liquid than plain. If you find the dough too dry, add extra water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you have the correct consistency.
Cut the butter into 1 cm (½ in) cubes and chill it in the freezer while you weigh up the rest of your ingredients.
Put the flour and salt in a mound on your kitchen bench and scatter the chilled butter cubes over the top. Use a rolling pin to roll the butter into the flour, gathering the flour back into the middle as you go with a dough scraper or spatula. Keep rolling until the mixture is crumbly with shards of butter the size of rolled oats still visible.
Make a well in the middle and add the chilled water. Use a dough scraper or knife to gently cut the flour into the water, gathering up any leaks as you do, until you have an even crumbly texture. Use your fingertips to gently push it all together into a rough dough with a slightly sticky texture. If it feels dry, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until there are no floury bits left.
Roll out or press the dough into a rectangle 2–3 cm (¾ –1¼ in) thick (exact dimensions are not important here). Fold one-third of the dough into the middle, then the other third over the top of that, as if folding a letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it out again into a rectangle 2–3 cm (¾ –1¼ in) thick, then repeat the letter fold. Don’t worry about making these folds perfectly neat – this is just to finish bringing the dough together and layering the butter, which results in a lovely flakiness.
Rotate and roll out the dough once more into a rectangle 2–3 cm (¾–1¼ in) thick and do one last fold. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight. The pastry will keep for 4–5 days in the fridge or up to 3 months in the freezer.
EGG WASH
Egg wash is a mixture brushed onto pastry before baking to give the finished product a lovely golden shine and a little extra crispness and flakiness. It’s used for many of the recipes in this book. I use:
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
20 g (¾ oz/1 tablespoon) full-cream (whole) milk a pinch of salt
Just whisk all the ingredients together. It will keep, refrigerated, in a sealed container for a few days. The salt helps to denature the proteins in the eggs so it’s easier to brush the pastry.
Egg wash can also be used to fill holes or cracks in a pastry tart shell. Simply brush the surface of the shell in the last few minutes of blind baking to ensure any small holes are sealed. If the hole is too big, use a little piece of raw dough and use the egg wash like a cement to plug that hole, then blind bake for a further 5 minutes to seal.
Recipe reprinted with permission from Hardie Grant.