Galette De Bretagne (Buckwheat Crepes from Brittany, France)

DIRECTIONS

• Put the dry buckwheat flour and salt into the bowl, then with a spoon push the mix to the edges of the bowl leaving a hole in the center.
• Then pour some of the milk and add some of the eggs into the center of the bowl.
• With a spoon slowly fold in a little of the flour into the liquid and mix, always keeping the liquid soupy in texture.
• Continue to slowly add the milk and eggs to the center of the bowl and fold in the flour in this way so the mix is never sticky but rather always soupy.
• Doing this results in a non-lumpy mix that is very smooth.
• Mix for a few minutes with an electric mixer, while slowly adding the water to the bowl while mixing.
• Add the water as the flour thickens so that the mixture doesn't become sticky.
• The final mixture should be more watery than you would expect for North American pancakes, roughly the the consistency of melted chocolate.
• note: A secret tip for this recipe is to add at this point a table spoon of beer to the mix for every egg you added, as the malty beer really brings out the flavor of the buckwheat.
• Leave for a few hours in the fridge.
• After the mix is chilled, check the consistency, if it is too hard (most likely) then add enough extra water to make mix smooth.
• Again, it should be smooth, silky and as runny as melted chocolate.
• The mix is now ready to use.
• To make each galette, heat up two elements on your cooker.
• One at maximum temperature, the other on a medium heat.
• Place a very flat griddle or large frying pan on the maximum temperature hottest element of the cooker to heat up.
• Add 5 grams of butter to the heated frying pan and wait till it melts and turns brown.
• Then wipe the whole frying surface with paper towel to remove the butter leaving the pan lightly greased.
• Don't be afraid to reuse your paper towel and skip fresh butter between galettes.
• Lift your frying pan slightly off the grill, and add one ladle of mix to the hot pan, so it covers a large surface very thinly.
• Quickly tilt the pan so the mix runs over the whole surface evenly to the edges.
• Try not to add a second ladle to the pan - this doesn't work well, better to live with some holes in the galette.
• Cook the galette for 10-15 seconds on the highest heat, then start to lift the edges of the whole galette up from the pan with a non-stick flat mixing spoon.
• When you can get a good edge up with the spoon, move the pan to the lower heat element of the cooker.
• Lift up a good edge of the galette from the pan with the spoon, and with your fingers lift up the whole galette off the non-stick pan and then flip it over.
• The underside should be golden brown with a very few brown spots.
• Keep the pan on the lower medium heat.
• Now add the fillings to the top of the galette's cooked side.
• filling note. A usual filling is made like this: sprinkle on a little grated Gruyère cheese, then break an egg yolk (discard the white before hand) over the cheese in the center of the galette.
• To this, add 2 slices of diced ham onto the runny egg yolk, and then top it off with a handful of torn spinach leaves.
• The trick is not to overfill the galette.
• Alternatively try different types of cheese, like brie or cheddar, or skip the egg, or skip the ham/spinach.
• Try out loads of combinations - it's like pizzas, you can design your own.
• Let the toppings cook for up to about 1 minute.
• This is the reason to only use egg yolks, if runny they are nice, egg whites however are not nice undercooked.
• Now, Fold the cooked edges of the galette into the center to make a square, to hold the filling.
• Use a spatula to press down on the folded mix so it holds its shape.
• Carefully flip over the parcel, again press down on it with a spatula.
• The galette should have nice golden colour and some little brown spots on it.
• Serve immediately.