Peach season is in full swing here in Ontario and I’ve already eaten my way through 3 baskets worth. And not a single one of those peaches ever saw the inside of a Mason jar or a pie. I ate them as fast as I could carry them home straight from my hand. But when I brought the fourth basket home, I knew I had to make something of them. And today’s Cognac Peach Galette with Snickerdoodle Ice Cream is that something.
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Pastry was my first love in the kitchen and I am fairly certain it will be the last thing I get right. I can still remember my grandmother telling me that cold hands make the best pastry. As a child, I was a bit of an obsessive worrier, so I took the whole cold hands/good pastry correlation a little too seriously. I remember being near devastated when I pressed my hands to my cheeks and felt their heat. In that instance, I questioned all my pastry-related aspirations. How could I make good flakey pastry if my hands run hot?
Fast forward to today where I am still an obsessive worrier but I do not obsessively worry about laying a finger on my pastry. I’ve obviously grown so very much. And like most important growth, it did not happen overnight. No, for years I relegated my pastry to the food processor, so no human hand could touch it.
Now, before I get all the angry emails, it is not my intention to slag off the food processor method for making pastry. It does a fine job and if you’re in the mood for pie but short on patience, it is 100% the way to go. But I do have my qualms with this method.
Qualm #1: Food processors bring the heat. So remember that part where I was terrified about my hot little hands? Well, I very counter-intuitively decided to eliminate my potentially damaging body heat from the pastry equation by, wait for it, plunking all my ingredients into a machine that, well, heats up. Not the smartest move.
Qualm #2: A pulse too far. Cutting butter into dry ingredients is different than integrating the butter into dry ingredients. You want the butter to still be visible and somewhat separate from the flour. This less-than-cohesive mixture is what gives the pastry its flakiness, which if you ask me is the reason we’re all here in the first place. If you cut the butter into your flour mixture too thoroughly your pastry will be tough and dense. Now, when using a food processor, you can avoid this pastry faux pas by using the pulse feature. By blitzing the ingredients together in short bursts, you stand a greater chance of catching your pastry at its optimal texture. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to take your pastry a pulse too far. A painful mistake I have made countless times.
So with the food processor being a total crapshoot, I began to search for alternative methods and that’s when I landed on Cupcake Jemma’s YouTube channel. If you’ve found yourselves in the baking corner of YouTube for any extended period of time, chances are you’ve encountered Jemma and her super helpful tutorials.
So, there I was perusing her videos when I was served her pastry masterclass. And in the masterclass was a method I had not seen before. A method that called into question everything I thought I knew about pastry. It was the “rubbing in” technique. Feel free to let your chosen dirty joke fly.
Essentially, this method encourages you to rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips. The motion is much like the one you would employ if you were dealing cards. I watched the method play out on my computer in horror. She was touching the butter and mashing it into the flour with. her. hands!!
Now, the nice thing about pastry is it’s an easy thing to practice. It calls for a few ingredients that are fairly cheap and beyond easy to find. So, the stakes are fairly low. And with this in mind, I decided to give this whole “rubbing in” business a go. But not before running my hands under cold water until they turned purple. Still not clear on whether or not this was wholly necessary but oh well.
In spite of the perfectly gorgeous pastry Cupcake Jemma created using this technique on the YouTube, I spent my entire maiden voyage convinced my pastry would be inedible. Well, I can tell you I was not only wrong, I was fantastically, utterly wrong. It was the best pastry I’ve ever made, bar none. I’m a total convert.
Now, you don’t have to use the “rubbing in” method to make the pastry for this Cognac Peach Galette. It’s not what you would call a low-maintenance activity. And if you’re making multiple pies and galettes and things, I would go for something slightly more efficient. You will feel this method in your hands and forearms. It’s not harrowing if you’re making a single batch, but a quadruple batch, well, at that point you’re working on a nasty case of carpal tunnel. But enough about pastry and its various methods, let’s talk about these cognac peaches and that magically melty snickerdoodle ice cream.
Snickerdoodle ice cream – the stuff is pure evil in the best possible way. It tastes exactly like the milk at the bottom of a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It’s rich and creamy and studded with chunks of snickerdoodle ice cream. There is nothing sophisticated about it. It delivers a nostalgic sugar rush that is heavy on bliss and light on complication. A delicious contrast to the grown-up flavor of cognac peaches that give this Cognac Peach Galette its name.
So, that is everything you need to know about this Cognac Peach Galette with Snickerdoodle Ice Cream. It delivers adult sophistication, wrapped in a flakey pastry, and topped with a taste of childhood. What more could you want from summertime dessert?
Enjoy!
FollowCognac Peach Galette with Snickerdoodle Ice Cream
Ingredients
Snickerdoodle Cookies
- 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar divided
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
Snickerdoodle Ice Cream
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 4-5 snickerdoodle cookies see above
Cognac Peach Galette
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp granulated sugar divided
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1/4-1/2 cup cold water
- 5 peaches cut into thin wedges
- 1/4 cup cognac
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp marmalade
Instructions
For the Snickerdoodles
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Place the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Place the butter and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar in a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream the butter and sugar together at medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture one at a time. Wait until the first egg is fully integrated before adding the other. Pour in the vanilla extract and beat until the mixture is uniform.
- Set the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients to the wet in three installments.
- Using two spoons, spoon the dough onto a scale and roll into a ball. Each ball should weigh in at 75g (2.6 oz). In a small bowl, whisk the remaining sugar and cinnamon together. Roll each of the dough balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and flatten slightly into discs. Reserve the leftover cinnamon sugar.
- Transfer the cookies to a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or a piece of parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes or until golden around the edges. Press the cookies with the back of a spatula immediately after removing from the oven. Feel free to skip this step, it's purely for aesthetics. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling wrack. Leave the cookies to cool completely.
For the Ice Cream
- Pour the milk into a small saucepan and place over low heat. Heat the milk until steam gathers on the surface.
- While the milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks, the reserved cinnamon sugar (see snickerdoodle recipe), sugar, and salt together until the sugar is somewhat dissolved.
- Add two ladles full of the warm milk to the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and cook on low until thick enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon.
- Pour the milk mixture into a large bowl and set aside to cool for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes have elapsed, slowly whisk in the heavy cream. Transfer the mixture to the fridge and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Pour the ice cream mixture into an ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes. Once the ice cream is in its last 5 minutes of churning, crumble the snickerdoodle cookies and sprinkle them into the ice cream.
- Transfer the ice cream to an 8×8 baking pan and cover with plastic wrap. Place the ice cream in the freezer and let freeze for at least 4 hours before serving. Overnight is best.
For the Galette
- Place the flour, 1 tbsp of the sugar and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Add the butter and using a food processor, pastry cutter or your chilled fingers cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse meal.
- Drizzle in the cold water, tossing the flour mixture as you go to ensure even distribution. Add only as much water as you need to get the dough to come together.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface and form into a ball before flattening into a disc. Wrap the pastry tightly in parchment paper and place in the fridge. Let rest for at least 1 hour.
- While the pastry is resting, place the peaches, the remaining sugar and cognac in a large bowl. Toss to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to marinate at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Once the hour is up, add the lemon juice and the cornstarch to the peaches and gently stir to combine. Set aside.
- Place the pastry on a well-floured surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the pastry out to a rough circle shape measuring a 1/8 of an inch thick. Transfer the pastry to a baking sheet or pizza pan.
- Arrange the peach slices in the center of the pastry leaving a 2-inch bare border around the outside. Fold the edges of the pastry towards the center of the galette. Transfer the assembled galette to the fridge. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375°F
- In a small bowl, whisk to combine the egg and 1 tbsp of water. Using a pastry brush, paint the pastry lightly with the egg wash. Transfer the galette to the oven and bake for 45 minutes, rotating once.
- Take the galette out of the oven and set aside to cool slightly. Place the marmalade in a small bowl and microwave it for 20 seconds. Using a pastry brush, paint a thin layer of the marmalade on the peaches. Adding just enough to make them nice and glossy.
- Slice the galette and divide amongst 4-6 plates. Serve with a hearty scoop of Snickerdoodle Ice Cream.
2 Comments
Looks amazing and perfect for the summer! I love peach and cognac together ♥
Thank you so much, Natalie! The cognac and the peach really get along famously!