This is one of those dishes that dances on the boundaries of savory & sweet. Like, is it dessert or dinner? Sure there’s chocolate, marshmallows, and caramel, but the crust is only lightly sweetened, the filling has hearty sweet potato slices, and the caramel is salted! Either way, its a dinner dessert thing perfectly suited for Autumn as it’s warm, comforting, and look at those colors – black, purple, and burnt couldn’t be more Halloween if they tried.
Let’s rewind the script real fast, you might be thinking to yourself: “what’s a galette?” and if you are, you’ll be delighted to hear the answer: a pie without a pan. Galettes take the hardest part of making pies – transferring crusts from counter to pan – and places the fillings directly in the middle of the crust. The sides are then folded onto the fillings acting as its own crust-made pan. To whoever invented the galette, I kneel to you.
Just like a good pie crust, you want it to be a combination of flaky, tender, and crispy. Why don’t we break up how to achieve these elements into a bulleted list?
- To create flakes, cold vegan butter is mixed into our dry ingredients until it’s crumbly. These crumbs turn into flat layers when rolled out, which melt in place, giving us a flaky texture.
- Tenderness is the most easily achieved element here as it comes naturally with the moisture from our wet ingredients as well as the fat that seeps out from the butter.
- We elevate crispiness by adding a touch of sorghum flour, which – like cornmeal – is a bit gritty, thus giving the crust a pleasant snap when you bite into it.
Adding alcohol to the crust, in this case bourbon whiskey, not only adds flavor but also helps prevent gluten formation. Gluten is formed by mixing wheat flour with water, and the more you mix, the more gluten strands are performed, which is a good thing for rustic breads but not so much for delicate crusts. You may ask: “why not just use cake flour or gluten-free flour?” and the answer is we still want the dough to be sturdy enough to manipulate and roll out thin without cracking. That’s why so many gluten-free pie crusts call for xanthan gum, which may fix the problem of durability, but creates an extra problem of gumminess and elasticity, which is exactly what we want to stay away from by avoiding gluten.
By introducing ethyl alcohol into the mix, gluten won’t form in the same way it does with water. That’s because ethyl alcohol doesn’t hydrate the proteins gliadin and glutenin, which are the proteins that bond to form gluten. By replacing some of the water with alcohol, we have a crust that’s more delicate, flaky, and crispy than it is elastic and chewy.
You can fill a galette crust with pretty much anything you can fill a pie crust with, with the exception of custard based fillings – they’re too wet to create a stable galette. Unlike pies, galettes often host savory fillings like tomatoes, potatoes, cheese, and our star ingredient today: sweet potato. More precisely “stokes” purple sweet potato. I don’t really like mentioning the “stokes” part as it seems kind of gimmicky, but if you’re going to the store to find the exact same one, that’s how they’ll be identified. Anyways, their mild flavor plays well with the chocolate, salted caramel, and toasted marshmallows here.
If you made our horchata from Tuesday, you most likely have some leftover salted caramel sauce on hand, which will be put to good use here. And if you haven’t made it yet, you’ll be able to enjoy a glass of horchata while you’re putting together this galette! Isn’t that just a match made in paradise?
We hope you guys enjoy this galette, it’s:
- Sweet & savory
- Perfect for Halloween
- Rich, chocolate-y, and comforting
- Flaky, tender, and crispy
- Vegan
If you like what your tastebuds are tellin’ ya, leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.
Bye Bye Pie,
Ryan
Chocolate Purple Sweet Potato Galette (vegan)
Crispy and flaky chocolate crust is highlighted by a calm spread of salted caramel sauce and thin slices of tender purple sweet potato. Toasted marshmallows bring campfire nostalgia and extra salted caramel drizzle shifts this dish into dessert territory.
Ingredients
Crust
- 120 g (1 c) all purpose flour
- 34 g (1/4 c) sorghum flour
- 20 g (1/4 c) dark dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp cane sugar
- 1/2 tbsp activated coconut charcoal (for color; optional ingredient)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 112 g (1/2 c) vegan butter, popped in freezer for 15 minutes
- 2.5 oz water
- 1 oz bourbon
- ice
Filling
- 1 medium width, long purple sweet potato (14 oz)
- 2 tbsps melted vegan butter (we prefer Melt)
- 2 tbsps brown sugar
- large pinch of salt
- drizzle of salted caramel sauce*
- touch of melted butter, cane sugar & salt
Topping
- handful of mini vegan marshmallows (Dandies is a popular brand)
- more salted caramel sauce
Directions
- Add all-purpose flour, sorghum flour, cocoa powder, cane sugar, charcoal, and salt to a food processor. Pulse a few times until the ingredients are thoroughly integrated.
- Scoop chunks of cold butter into the food processor and pulse a few times – about 6 short pulses – until the butter resembles large crumbs.
- In a small glass, stir together water, bourbon, and a couple of ice cubes. Add about 3/4 of this mixture to the food processor and pulse a few times. Check the consistency of the dough – it should be crumbly, but wet enough that it holds together when you grab a chunk and squeeze it. If it falls apart, add a little bit more moisture and pulse a couple more times until you get the right texture.
- Note: If you accidentally add too much liquid, mix in a touch of all-purpose flour to tighten it back up. Remember, you want to mix the dough as little as possible.
- Pull out a piece parchment paper two times the size of a typical cookie sheet and pour dough right onto parchment. Use your hands to form the crumbly dough into a rough oval. Compact it, wrap it loosely in the parchment, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- While dough refrigerates, place two cookie sheets into the freezer. Slice your sweet potato into very thin slices using either a sharp chef’s knife or mandolin slicer. They should roughly be the size of thick potato chips. When dough’s time is almost up, pre-heat oven to 400° F.
- Take dough out of fridge and lay the parchment out flat. Lightly dust one half of parchment with flour, place dough in middle of flour, and sprinkle with more flour on top. Pull the rest of the parchment overtop the dough and roll into a rough rectangle about 12 x 17 inches.
- Note: Check the dough every so often to see if it’s sticking; add more flour if needed. If the dough starts to get really sticky, slide it onto one of the cookie sheets you placed in the freezer and place the second one on top of that. Let it sit for 2 minutes then resume rolling.
- Place rolled dough – along with the parchment it’s on – onto a cookie sheet. In a medium bowl, toss together sweet potato slices, melted butter, brown sugar, and a heavy pinch of salt. Reserving about 1 1/2 inches all around the dough, drizzle a little bit of salted caramel sauce (about 2 tablespoons) all over the center of the dough then arrange the sweet potato slices in rows down the center.
- Use parchment paper to fold the edges of the dough towards the middle. Lightly brush the crust with melted butter and sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt followed by a sprinkle of cane sugar.
- Place in oven and bake at 400° F for 15 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for another 15 minutes. Check to see if the sweet potatoes are tender, if they are, time for the next step. If not, bake for another 5-10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and lay on a handful of marshmallows. Toast them using a handheld torch (the most fun method) or simply put the whole thing under a broiler for a couple minutes, keeping a careful eye on it to ensure the crust doesn’t burn; the marshmallows should be lightly toasted.
- Allow galette to rest for 5 minutes before drizzling with more salted caramel sauce and slicing. We cut ours once down the middle vertically and three times across horizontally, thus creating 8 slices. Store leftovers at room temperature for 1 day or in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat in a 350° F oven until just warmed up; about 5 minutes.
NO EGGS OR HAM 
Appreciate your bblog post
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Wow you have a true gift at taking a recipe and making it so unique yet amazing. Keep up the great work (:
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