Makes 1 galette
This dough is one of my favorites. It’s flaky, the way pie dough is, and flavorful, the way tart dough is. It’s a cinch to work with, and even first-timers can make a perfect galette with it. Of course, “perfect galette” is an oxymoron — a galette is a rustic, freestanding, open-faced tart that’s only perfect when it’s higgledy-piggledy.
Working Ahead
You can refrigerate the dough, wrapped airtight, for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 2 months. (I like to roll the dough and then freeze it.) If you’ve frozen the dough, leave it on the counter to come to a workable temperature.
Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut into the flour. At first you’ll have a mixture that looks like coarse meal and then, as you pulse more, you’ll get small flake-sized pieces with some larger pea-sized pieces. Add a little of the ice water and pulse, add some more and pulse and continue until all the water is in. Now work in longer pulses, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl if needed, until you have a dough that forms nice, bumpy curds that hold together when you pinch them.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it gently to bring it together. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disk and put it between two large pieces of parchment paper. Roll the dough, while it’s still cool, into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Don’t worry about getting the exact size or about having the edges of the round be perfect — ragged is pretty here. The dough will be thicker than you might think it should be, and that’s fine — it’s what you need for a free-form pastry.
Slide the rolled-out dough, still between the sheets of paper, onto a baking sheet or cutting board and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or (well wrapped) for up to 3 days.
When you’re ready to use the dough, leave it on the counter for a few minutes just so that it’s pliable enough to lift and fold without cracking.