Sweet Potato & Sage Galette
In the Kitchen with Chef Linda Hampsten Fox
Photo Courtesy of Marianne Martin
Linda Hampsten Fox’s cookbook, The Bindery: A Collection of Recipes, is filled with ideas for more than 75 original dishes using local seasonal ingredients. With fall harvest upon us, these deliciously divine dishes celebrate life through food.
SWEET POTATO & SAGE GALETTE (serves 6 to 8)
Ingredients
- 4 large sweet potatoes
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- sea salt
- 12 sage leaves
- 1 batch of basic pastry dough (her recipe is on p. 191 of her cookbook)
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them into thin rounds (about ⅛-inch thick). Over medium heat, melt the butter on a 12-inch round pizza pan . Add the sugar, stirring and cooking until the sugar turns a dark, amber caramel. This may take some time. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle the caramel with a pinch of sea salt. In the same pan, place the sage leaves top (fuzzy) side down into the caramel. Use attention not to touch the caramel with your fingers—hot caramelized sugar is dangerous!
Layer the slices of sweet potato in a spiral pattern over the caramel, starting at the center and working your way out. Leave a ½-inch space between the last slices of sweet potato and edge of the pan.
Roll out the pie dough about 1-2 inches larger than the diameter of your pizza pan. Carefully lay the crust over the sweet potatoes. At this point, it will look like an upside-down pie. Tuck the crust under the outer ring of the sweet potatoes. Place the galette in the bottom third of your oven to avoid over browning the crust. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the crust is golden and the caramel bubbles at the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes.
Place a large round platter over the galette. Using hot pads, carefully flip the pan over so the galette is crust down on the platter. Gently lift the pan to reveal your beautiful sweet potato galette. Serve immediately.
Chef Tip: When making the caramel, be sure to let the sugar cook long enough; a slightly bitter flavor is the goal. This is indicated by the dark amber color.
