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I’m proud of the level of rustic I achieved with these mini galettes. I really wasn’t aiming to create a sleek summer tart (as you can see), but the kind which looks like it could be served on a beautiful farmhouse somewhere far away from the city. So I remembered galettes – perhaps the most rustic of all tarts, and began testing the recipe for these vegan, gluten-free tomato galettes with creamy cashew cheese. Why tomatoes? Simply because they are at their peak season now in Finland. Juicy, sweet, fruity – and the perfect pair for creamy cashew cheese.
As a huge fan of tomatoes, I couldn’t possibly settle for just one type of tomato. I wanted a lovely umami taste, which I knew would be easy to achieve with sun-dried tomatoes. These two kinds of tomatoes together are a beautiful burst of flavor with a subtle creamy cheese filling and a rustic crust. This crust is not a typical flaky and buttery crust, but a more crumbly one with tahini and coconut oil as the “buttery” ingredients.
Mini galettes in-the-making
Making the crust into a galette requires some tricks, which can be seen from the images above. This crust is most suitable for mini galettes (four mini galettes).
- Roll the dough into a thin round(ish) shape with a rolling pin. My mini galettes were about 4,5 inch / 11 cm in diameter + edges about 1 inch / 2,5 cm.
- This crust works best when you shape it into a “cup” and then add the filling in the middle. If the dough is very crumbly, use a little bit of water to help shape the cup. I usually have a small bowl with water nearby when I shape the cups so that I can easily fix the crumbly parts.
- The folding down part may get a little crumbly, but don’t worry. This is a GALETTE – it’s supposed to look rustic and the edges really don’t need to be perfect. See what I mean (image below).
Galette folded and ready to go in the oven, with perfectly imperfect crumbly crust.
And finally here, ready to be eaten warm.
On another note – about food photography. I always take pictures indoors in natural light. I set up my tiny studio on our dining table or a removable little table and start taking pictures. You can read more about my photography flow here (in English after the Italian version). Lately I’ve been yearning to do a photo shoot outdoors, but I always get frustrated by the bright light and unappealing shadows. As I have no professional photography equipment, I have no idea how to tackle these challenges. So I managed to take just one decent image with my super patient model, who also happens to be a huge fan of tomatoes 🙂 If you have any tips on outdoor food photography, would LOVE to know!
It all began with tomatoes. And last but not least, four mini galettes straight out of the oven.
- Creamy cashew cheese
- ½ cups cashews (+ 2 cups warm water and ½ tsp sea salt for soaking)
- 1,5 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp garlic flakes (or 1 small clove of garlic)
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp salt (e.g.Himalayan)
- ¼ cups water
- Galette crust
- Dry ingredients
- ½ cups oat flour
- ½ cups white rice flour
- ¼ cups almond flour
- ½ tsp coconut sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- Wet ingredients
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 3 tbsp coconut oil, solid (not melted)
- 5 tbsp cold water
- Tarte filling
- Creamy cashew cheese
- ⅓ cup chopped sundried tomatoes
- 4 small tomatoes, about 12 slices
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- Preparations: Soak cashews for a minimum of 2 hours (preferably four) in warm water and pinch of salt.
- When soaked, drain and rinse cashews well.
- Blend soaked cashews together with other creamy cheese ingredients until totally smooth and silky.
- Chop sun-dried tomatoes (tiny pieces work better) and slice tomatoes.
- Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C.
- Galette crust: Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
- Add tahini and scoopable coconut oil and mix with both spoon and hand to make a sand like crumble.
- Add cold water 1 tbsp at a time working on the dough while you add the water. The dough should feel firm, not crumbly (nor too wet), and easily shapable into a ball.
- Divide the dough ball into four equal parts.
- Making the mini galettes: Take a parchment paper and start rolling the galette crust one by one. SEE notes and images above for tips.
- Scoop creamy cashew cheese on the galette "cup", add chopped sun-dried tomatoes and last add tomato slices & oregano.
- Fold the edges of the "cup" towards the center. If the dough starts to crumble, dab it with a little water and continue folding. Another trick is to wet your hands just a little and continue folding.
- Repeat the same procedure for each mini galette.
- Bake in the oven for about 30 min or until crust turns golden brown.
- Enjoy the galettes warm!
10 out of 10 on rustic-ness! And probably at least a 230472075 out of 10 on flavor, if only I could steal a bite right now I would know for sure! I love the rustic look, but it seems like one of those artsy things that is actually SO much harder than it appears. Like trying to get the fruit on the smoothie bowl to look “random”–looks easy, actually so hard. But you nailed it! And as if juicy fresh-picked peak of season tomatoes all shriveled and sweet from baking aren’t enough, you added in homemade cheesiness too!? Mmmmm. Mouth. Is. Watering. Forget pizza, galettes need to be a part of my life!
As for outdoor photograph, the only time I have luck with it is either under a porch or late in the day. Anytime where the sun is not direct pretty much, otherwise it’s just blown out every which way.
Thank you Natalie, you are the sweetest 🙂 I’m really into rustic cooking these days!! It has a sense of freedom and definitely artsy vibes, which I really love. I think this is more “me” than any of my other recipes! I do really love fruits and cakes (and nice creams etc hehe) but I’m really a tomato-galette-kind of girl more. Hope you get to try galette soon too!! And definitely going to continue my outdoor food photography training but perhaps later in the summer when the light isn’t so harsh..grr.. Wishing you a super relaxing weekend <3