Herby Carrot and Cream Cheese Galette (Gluten Free!)
I’M DONE MAKING DUMPLINGS. Just kidding… but after my next workshop this Thursday I’m forcing myself to take a dumpling making break. I have this great/potentially awful idea for a peppermint mocha dessert dumpling, but I’ll have to resist that risky experiment until at least after Thanksgiving.
Eat Cho Food’s first pop up was this past Saturday and I’m still mentally and physically recovering from the whole experience. It was such a crazy time. I spent most of last week prepping all the food, tweaking printed menus, making freezer labels, and forming all 508 dumplings. Have you ever made 500 of anything (other than grains of rice) within 3 days before? It’s a pretty good right arm workout but I don’t recommend it.
The days leading up to Saturday weren’t actually too stressful. Everything went pretty smoothly and I realized I’m a little faster at dumpling pleating than I originally thought. The only thing that kept me up at night was the idea of everyone showing up at the same time… or would anyone even show up at all?! Will people actually like my dumplings?! Okay. Many things were keeping me up at night.
Once Saturday morning came, I woke up at 6 am to bake some buns and to prepare for the big event. Noon came and a few people had already showed up a few minutes early! For the first 15 minutes of service there was a steady trickle of orders and Reuben and I were feeling pretty good. Then we looked up from our steaming station and there was a line out the door. OMGGGGGGGGGG. Who are all these people?! We actually knew about half of the faces smiling back at us, but the rest were complete strangers!
We took a deep breath and got really focused on fulfilling tickets. Well, Reuben got really focused because he’s the calm and collected half of the two of us. He handled steaming all the dumplings and managing tickets, while I took over scooping salad, delivering orders, and chatting with people to make sure they weren’t hangry! It was all such a blur. By the time 1:30 rolled around, we finally caught up with our tickets and were almost sold out! We stayed open for about another hour and it was a cake walk. If you stopped by the pop-up, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I hope you enjoyed your food : )
Before this, the only restaurant service experience I ever had was a few months as a waitress in college and running the carryout orders from the kitchen of my family’s restaurant to the hostess stand. So like zero experience. Reuben also had zero experience but he straight up ran that kitchen like an executive chef! I could write a whole book about why Reuben is the best human on the planet, he really is so great and the pop-up literally wouldn’t have been able to happen without his help and excellent project management skillz. I’ll have to hire him one day!
Now that the craziness of pop up prep has passed, I finally have time to think about Thanksgiving! My 3rd favorite meal of the year! First is Chinese New Year, second if my Mom’s Christmas Prime Rib Dinner, and third is Turkey day! I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving in 5 years which really bums me out. One day I’ll be back!
This year, Reuben and I are heading out to New Jersey for Thanksgiving and I CANNOT WAIT. The East Coast feels so refreshing compared to San Francisco, which sounds insane… but it’s just nice to be somewhere that actually has appropriate seasons and more normal people. It also has bagels. Which is the real reason I’m so excited to back to NJ hehehe
I’ll be sharing a few low maintenance turkey day recipes over the next 2 weeks (ah! 2 weeks?!), all of which you can totally make for your family with little stress! The holidays are stressful enough, but the recipes don’t have to be!
To start things off, here is my Herby Carrot and Cream Cheese Galette! To break things down, this galette has a super tender and flakey gluten free crust, a thick layer of scallion cream cheese, ribbons of carrots tossed in sesame oil, and a healthy sprinkling of sesame seeds for a nice crunch and intoxicating aroma. It’s SO GOOD and comes together so quickly!
The Best Gluten Free Galette Dough
I first started playing around with a gluten free pie dough when I catered a dinner last month where half of the guests were gluten free. I always want everyone to be able to enjoy the same meal and not have to sacrifice anything with substitutions. So I took my first deep dive into gluten free baking! I even made a gluten free crusty bread that wasn’t too terrible. The gluten free pie dough recipe I developed is debatably better than regular pie dough! I know that’s a big statement, but there is definitely a time and place where a nutty almond flour based dough works so much better than a conventional pie dough. This is that time!
For this gluten free galette dough, I used Bob’s Red Mill Super-Fine Natural Almond Flour (you could also use their regular Almond Flour!) and their Tapioca Starch. The Natural Almond Flour gives the dough beautiful color, a toasty nutty flavor, and great texture. I actually use tapioca flour or starch quite a bit in asian cooking, it’s a key ingredient in crystal dumplings, but in baking it’s used more as a binder and helps give the dough a slight chewy texture - a texture you would get in regular gluten-y baked goods!
The almond flour and tapioca starch are mixed with cold butter, salt, egg, and a bit of chopped up rosemary! The rosemary really livens up the dough and makes the whole kitchen smells so good! It works in both savory and sweet applications too, trust me on this one! A Rosemary and Apple Galette sounds incredible!
Once you’ve formed your dough, chill it so the butter has a chance to firm up again. Then roll it out and assemble just as you would with regular pie dough. Since it lacks gluten the dough will be a little more delicate to work with, so when you’re crimping the edges of the galette use the parchment paper to help fold it over.
Pile on the Carrots
Going to town on a bunch of carrots with a vegetable peeler is one of my favorite activities! I should get more hobbies… Peeling the carrots into wide noodles is really satisfying though! I’m not a huge fan of vegetable based noodles, but I do love how pretty and versatile carrot ribbons can be! I make a carrot ribbon salad with fish sauce, lime juice, and sesame oil pretty much all year round. It’s so tasty and comes together in less than 10 minutes! I took a similar approach in this recipe and tossed the carrot ribbons in olive oil, sesame oil, and some salt - easy peasy.
The carrot ribbons get piled on top of the scallion cream cheese and once baked create the best textural combo. The crust is tender and flakey, theres a nice crunch from the sesame seeds, the cream cheese is soft and melty, and the carrots are tender but crispy at the very top - like carrot chips! Toasted Sesame Seeds might be my favorite smell of all time. When this guy is in the oven the whole house smells like butter, rosemary, and sesame seeds. My heaven! I brought this into Reuben’s office after my final test and it was gobbled up in a few minutes!
This Herby Carrot and Cream Cheese Galette would make an excellent any time meal with a side salad or a very impressive side to bring your Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving! No one will even be able to tell that it is gluten free!
Herby Carrot and Cream Cheese Galette
serves 8
dough materials:
2 cups (230g) Bob’s Red Mill Super-Fine Natural Almond Flour
2/3 cup (75g) Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour/Starch
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp fresh rosemary - chopped
8 tbsp cold butter
1 egg
galette materials:
4-6 medium carrots
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
8 oz softened cream cheese
4 scallions - chopped
egg wash - 1 egg + splash of water
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp flakey salt
steps:
Combine almond flour, tapioca starch, salt, and chopped rosemary in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to evenly combine. Grate or cut cold butter into small pieces. Add the the almond flour mixture and begin the knead the butter into the flour. Once texture resembles wet sand, add in the egg and knead until you have a smoothish dough ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and stick in the freezer for 30 minutes or in the fridge until ready to use.
While the dough in chilling, slice carrots into long strips with a vegetable peeler. Place sliced carrots in a bowl with salt, olive oil, and sesame oil. Toss to evenly coat and set aside.
Combine softened cream cheese with chopped scallions and set aside.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
To assemble the galette, place dough on the baking tray lined with parchment. Roll out the dough into a roughly 11” round. Smear scallion cream cheese onto the dough, leaving a 1” clear border around the edge. Top the cream cheese with carrots, making sure to shake off any excess moisture that may have come out of the carrots. Use the parchment to help fold over the edges of the galette dough over the fillings.
Brush the crust with egg wash and sprinkle on sesame seeds onto the crust. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes. If the tops of the carrots start to burn, place a piece of foil of the galette for the final minutes.
Remove the galette from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Finish with a sprinkle of flakey salt and serve warm!