*This Strawberry Galette is a stunning spring dessert. Sweet, juicy strawberries are encased in a flaky, golden brown crust.*

I’ve included brief mentions to the story of this strawberry galette in past posts, but now that strawberry season is in full swing it’s finally time to present you with the full shebang! It all started when I was a wee little girl… well, more like an awkward preteen. At the time, I hadn’t done much cooking or baking myself – all of my kitchen knowledge was limited to watching my mom and helping out to mix up batches of cookie dough or pans of brownies. One week, my dad and brother were out of town, so it was just my mom and I in the house. We ventured out to the farmer’s market, and, since it was April, I of course gravitated immediately to the strawberries. We arrived home with a couple of baskets of the sweet, juicy berries, and my mom casually suggested that I try adding them to a baked creation.

“That’s an interesting idea!”, I thought. Generally up for new challenges, I decided to give it a try. So, we pulled out my mom’s packed filing box of dessert recipes (she has similar such collections of instructions for every type of dish and treat you can imagine) and we started searching for a strawberry recipe. The first one we found was for a berry galette – not quite a pie, not quite a tart, this delicious dessert is a rustic and freeform creation of flaky, buttery pie dough and sweetened fruit. Convinced by the picture alone, I started pulling out buckets of flour and sticks of butter and got to work. An hour later, my mom and I were happy to dig into the dessert – a sweet, sticky mess of the juiciest strawberries; not quite perfect, but more than impressive for a first attempt and delicious nonetheless.

And from that first foray into baking, I was off and running! Quickly I turned to homemade cinnamon-filled brownies, the best chocolate chip cookies, and all sorts of layer cakes. I’m sure, at times at least, my mom regretted turning me on to this often messy and almost always sugar and butter-filled hobby, but I couldn’t get enough. I’ve come to absolutely adore the entire process of baking: from dreaming up new, fun recipes; to the meditative mindset I find measuring and chopping in the kitchen; to, most of all, the joy in sharing my sweets with family and friends.

So, although I’m baking year round (constantly, it sometimes seems), every year when spring rolls around and strawberries pop up at the farmer’s market, I’ll make this strawberry galette, to honor the humble roots of my most favorite hobby. And every year, it will come out of the oven absolutely delicious, because that’s just how this little recipe rolls. Seriously, the combination of that flaky, buttery dough, the most syrupy and sweet berries, and the melty vanilla ice cream that you must add on top: it’s perfection. This year, I’ve updated my go-to pie dough in a couple small ways. First, I’m grating the butter (we first stick it in the freezer for a few minutes to make this super easy!) instead of chopping it, which allows it to distribute among the flour super evenly. Second, I’m adding a bit of chilled vodka in with the water that binds everything together. Not something my twelve year old self would ever have thought of (haha), the alcohol helps add moisture without making the dough too tough, resulting in the most flaky and light crust possible. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating spring with this most magnificent strawberry galette!