fig galette

Next week — next Tuesday, in fact — is my first-ever Tuesday Recipe cooking class. The tagline is “simple strategies for weeknight meals” and the one I’m teaching in October will be “simple strategies for fall entertaining.” Which got me thinking…what exactly is a Tuesday recipe? You’d think I’d know, since I’ve been posting them since 2007 (ack! 12 years!), but, as with all things, I tend to change my mind.

First a Tuesday recipe was meant to give you a new idea before newspaper food sections came out on Wednesday. Once that competition faded, it was a chance to share anything I was making that week that might be interesting. Then “Tuesday recipe” surfaced as an internet meme for a simple dish you might not make on the weekend (or so the pundits say). But for me, anything I post has to be both simple and stylish, and work as well on Wednesday or Saturday as it does on Tuesday.

Now I have a new criterion: it has to be simple enough to make single-handedly. Because I have a busted wing. Yep. I tripped in a pothole and fooshed…or “fell on an outstretched hand” per my ortho doc. I fractured the radial bone at my elbow, so my right arm will be in a sling for my first-ever Tuesday Recipe class. I guess I’ll find out how easy my recipes really are.

Kidding aside, no one can cook single-handedly unless they are forced to. But I bet I could make this galette with one hand, as long as someone else cut the figs and I used pre-rolled pastry. It really is that simple. And stylish. A classic Tuesday recipe indeed.

ingredients

2 pounds firm Black Mission or other figs
2 tablespoons honey
2/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pastry for a single-crust pie
1 egg white
1 tablespoon sugar
vanilla ice cream, crème fraiche, or Greek yogurt

directions

Preheat an oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut stems off figs and cut figs into quarters lengthwise. In a small saucepan, mix honey, orange juice and vanilla. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and stir until honey melts, then reduce to medium and boil until reduced until to about 3 tablespoons and very thick and syrupy, 5 to 7 minutes. Set aside.

Roll out pastry to a 12-inch circle; place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Beat egg white lightly then brush over pastry all the way to edges. Sprinkle sugar on top. Arrange figs, cut sides up, in a pinhweel pattern on pastry, starting from the center and working out and leaving a 1-inch border. With brush, dab the reduced honey mixture all over the figs. Fold the border of pastry up and over the edges of the figs, stretching it slightly if needed. Brush a bit more of the egg white on the pastry edge (using a clean brush).

Bake until pastry is golden and figs are soft and slightly caramelized, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool on pan, then remove and cut into wedges. Serve with vanilla ice cream, crème fraiche, or yogurt, if desired.