Rhubarb Birthday Galette
I turned 31 on Friday!
But this is no birthday-cake blog post.
I’m just not much of a cake person, unless the cake is livened up with layers or pockets of fresh fruit. (…or unless the cake has some delicious type of frosting, in which case, I’m just in it for the frosting.)
So in honor of my birthday, I baked myself some fruit galettes.
Before you go feeling sorry for me– baking my own birthday treats, you should know that I wasn’t alone in the kitchen. My girlfriend took off work, and we spent the day listening to music and criss-crossing each other on our way to and from the oven, as I made galettes (and took photos) and she baked cookies, baguettes, and ciabatta.
Not that we ate all that by ourselves… I had some friends over for a lovely and somewhat impromptu birthday potluck!
Maybe it’s a sign that I’m getting older, but I didn’t have the energy for a full-on dinner party like the Tapas Party for my 30th. A potluck was the perfect solution. You know, a party that would free us up from having to cook all day long gearing up for it.
But then we still cooked all day long gearing up for it.
That kind of day makes me immensely happy.
Previews of my girlfriend’s ciabatta, and my homemade fig jam.
Some of the birthday treats that we made– I’ll try to post recipes soon!– include:
- this rhubarb galette with strawberries
- an apple goat cheese galette with cinnamon
- my girlfriend’s latest preferred baguette recipe
- her brand new and successful ciabatta recipe
- baked brie wrapped in phyllo dough with fig jam
- fig jam that I canned the day before my birthday
- my girlfriend’s Speculoos chocolate chip cookies (Speculoos is a peanut butter-like paste made to taste like the famous Dutch/Belgian Speculoos cookies, called “Biscoff” here in the U.S.)
I also tried out a wonderful recipe for Sangria Granita from the blog Simply Scratch, adapting it so little that my modifications don’t merit a recipe post of their own, but it was a grand success, and a perfect summer dessert that I’ll be making again sometime soon!
Caprese skewers, brought to the potluck by some friends!
But on to the topic at hand: the Rhubarb Birthday Galette.
I recently tried out some new variations on my Apricot Almond Galette recipe, including peaches with almonds, figs with goat cheese and cinnamon, and, most successful of all: the same with apples instead of figs.
I planned to make this apple version again for my birthday, but my galette crust recipe makes enough for two tarts. Evidently I didn’t plan that part very well, and we uncharacteristically had NO fresh fruit in the house for the second galette. Ok… other than two Asian pears (too similar to apples), several bananas (too sweet and mushy for baked galettes), and some CSA strawberries (too tempting not to just eat fresh right away).
I did, however, have some rhubarb– that I’d been surprised and delighted to find at the grocery store in August!– and that I’d planned to use for rhubarb pickles… Into the made-up galette recipe it went!
The result was my favorite variation so far. I am SUCH a sucker for rhubarb.
And while my disinterest in cake led to fruit galettes that I refused to mar with any sort of candles to wish on, my friends sang “happy birthday” to me anyway. It was a wonderful birthday.
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Before I leave you with this mouthwatering rhubarb recipe, I have two more things I want to share:
I’m ridiculously excited about two new food-related birthday presents (from my three awesome sisters): an ice cream maker (!) and a copy of “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
On a more serious note, I can’t post this without mentioning that more than anything, I’ll be thinking of my mom today. She’s been bravely fighting multiple myeloma (cancer) for many months now, and today is the day she goes into the hospital to begin her stem cell replacement procedure (like a bone marrow transplant). I’m not sure when she’ll get a chance to read this, but since I started this blog, my mom has been one of its biggest fans and supporters. And since she started her chemo treatments, I’m always hoping that my posts will provide her with a nice distraction, even if it’s just for a little while. I wish California were closer to Wisconsin so I could visit her much more often. I love you, mom!
RECIPE:
Print this recipe (with recipe for Galette Crust).
Rhubarb Birthday Galette
Ingredients:
~ half of the Galette Crust Recipe
~ 4-5 stalks rhubarb, leaves discarded
~ juice of ½ a lemon
~ ½ cup sugar (plus more for sprinkling over the tart before baking)
~ ¼ cup flour
~ pinch of salt
~ dash of cinnamon
~ mixture to absorb fruit juices: 2 Tbsp. almond meal, 1 Tbsp. flour, 1 Tbsp. sugar
~ 3 Tbsp. butter, melted (for brushing over the crust before baking)
OPTIONAL:
~ several strawberries (I only used 4 stalks rhubarb, then added 5 sliced strawberries at the end, right before baking, to fill it out)
How to make it:
1. Prepare the dough for the galette crust (halving the crust recipe for one galette), and let the ball of plastic-wrapped dough chill in the fridge (step #4). Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. While the dough is chilling, chop the rhubarb into slices, around ½ inch thick. In a small saucepan, heat the rhubarb, lemon juice, and sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves into a liquid (8-10 minutes). Then remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes.
3. While it’s cooling, prepare the mixture to absorb fruit juices, by stirring together almond meal, flour, and sugar in a small bowl. Arrange some parchment paper on a baking sheet and dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll out the galette crust (step #5 in that recipe), transfer to the baking sheet, and return to the fridge.
4. To the slightly cooled rhubarb mixture, add: flour, salt, and cinnamon, and stir to combine. Wait for the oven to pre-heat, then melt the butter in a small dish, and remove the chilled galette crust from the fridge.
5. Spread the almond flour mixture over the dough, leaving a 2-inch border around the edges. Then gently spoon the rhubarb mixture over that, spreading it out evenly, and adding a few sliced strawberries on top if you’d like. Fold the edges in, overlapping them, to create a rustic, somewhat-circular galette.
6. Brush the dough with melted butter, and sprinkle both the crust and the filling generously with sugar. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 375 and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until the crust is starting to brown. Serve warm, or cool, possibly with vanilla ice cream!
Print this recipe (with recipe for Galette Crust)!
Related recipe posts:
> Apricot Almond Galette (with Strawberry and Mango variations)
> Rainbow Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
> Mango Coconut Popsicles with a Hint of Lime
spontaneous tomato 
Sounds like a perfect birthday! Happy belated!
Thank you!
Happy birthday my friend, what a wonderful way to celebrate :)
Haven’t seen you around much but glad still posting up delicious treats! :D
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thanks! Yep, I’ve been trying to post every Monday and Thursday morning (California time). :)
Happy birthday! This looks like a wonderful way to celebrate. And I’m sending healthy thoughts your Mom’s way.
Thank you, Emmy!
Looks great and sounds like a fun day…our best wishes to your mom…
Thanks so much!
Happy birthday and those strawberries look delicious!
Thanks!
What a birthday treat line up! I’d be as happy as a lark with all those yummy edibles.
Happy Birthday to you and I hope the year ahead is full of happiness and good eats!
Thanks so much! I was definitely happy to spend my birthday sharing good food with good friends.
cannot ever recall being awash in tears after seeing your beautiful photographs and reading
the recipes for your birthday and most of all your tribute to donna. hope you have a wonderful year . love grandma
Hi Grandma, thanks for commenting! I couldn’t help but write something about mom because I am thinking of her so much this week especially. It’s such a relief that everything’s going smoothly so far. Talk to you soon! Love, Allison
Happy belated birthday! What a lovely galette. I’ve never cooked with rhubarb…it’s always seemed a bit intimidating. I hope your mom is feeling better soon….
Thanks so much!
Oh and rhubarb definitely takes a few extra steps more than just sticking slices of fresh fruit into a tart like this, but it’s still really easy!
You could maybe even chop it up and toss it in raw, but it might either 1) not be sweet enough– it’s very sour!– or 2) require too long of a cooking time that way. So that’s how I came up with the idea of cooking it in sugar for a few minutes first (then adding flour to absorb some of the the liquid).
Happy birthday! This looks like quite a feast to behold, but that galette really does look like the best part of all. It’s just gorgeous!
Thank you! I can’t help but agree that it was the best part of all… just thinking about rhubarb– especially with strawberries– makes my mouth water… (That’s why I went ahead and bought rhubarb to bake with in August, even though it’s really best in the spring!)
Happy belated Birthday to you, dear Allson!
What a feast for the eyes & all for you on your birthday! yeah! Those chocolate chip speculaas cookies rock!
Your rhubarb galette looks so appetizing & is looking very pretty too! :) I also love home-made baguettes! So good!
I am a big fan of rhubarb, it is growing in my garden!
Thank you! I’m so jealous that you have rhubarb growing in your garden!! It’s weirdly one of the harder things to find fresh in southern California… And yes I was VERY excited about the chocolate chip Speculoos cookies– so excited that I didn’t get to take that many photos of them, so we’ll just have to make them one more time for a blog post! ;)
ooh,..yes! :) I want the recipe! :)
We grew strawberries and rhubarb growing up so this galette takes me back, noms!
Awesome! We had raspberries in my backyard growing up, which I LOVED, and this is funny, but I honestly can’t remember whether we had rhubarb back there too or not, or if we just occasionally got some from a neighbor… but strawberries would have been wonderful!
Happy birthday to you, my (almost) birthday twin! I didn’t bake for my own birthday–we picked up a yummy carrot cake from a local bakeshop instead–but man, this looks so delicious!!
Ooh that sounds good, too! Hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Happy Belated Birthday! I knew there was I reason I liked your blog…a fellow August Birthday!
Thank you! Yes, and from the comments I got on this post and the Pan Catalan post– where I mentioned my birthday month– it seems that there are many fellow food bloggers with August birthdays… welcome to the club! :)