Strawberry, Basil and Black Pepper Galette

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• pinch of fine salt
• 130g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 3-4 tbsp ice-cold water
• 500g ripe strawberries, hulled and halved (quartered if large)
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
• 1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 8 basil leaves, finely shredded
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 30g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp water (egg wash)
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar
• extra cracked black pepper, to finish

Method

1. Make the pastry first so it has time to chill properly — warm pastry shrinks and leaks butter in the oven, and a galette lives or dies on a crisp base. Whisk the flour, sugar and a proper pinch of fine salt in a bowl (don't skip it — salt sharpens the butter and stops the pastry tasting flat), then rub in the cold butter with your fingertips until you have coarse breadcrumbs studded with pea-sized lumps. Those lumps are what give you flake — if you rub it down to fine sand, you've gone too far.
2. Add 3 tbsp ice-cold water and bring it together with a knife, adding the last tbsp only if it won't quite come. Press into a flat disc, wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes — it should feel firm and cold, not pliable.
3. Tip the strawberries into a bowl with the caster sugar, cornflour, lemon zest, cracked black pepper, shredded basil and the lemon juice. Toss gently and leave for 10 minutes — the sugar draws out the juice and the cornflour will thicken it as it bakes, which is how you get jammy fruit instead of a puddle. Taste a strawberry once it's macerated: it should be sweet, fragrant, with the pepper humming underneath. Adjust sugar now if your fruit is sharp — at the table is too late.
4. Heat the oven to 200°C fan / 220°C conventional and slide a heavy baking sheet in to heat with it. A hot tray hits the pastry from below the moment it lands — that's how you dodge a soggy bottom.
5. Roll the chilled pastry on a lightly floured sheet of greaseproof to a rough circle about 32cm across and 3–4mm thick. Don't chase a perfect edge — rustic is the point. Slide the greaseproof and pastry onto a second flat tray or board.
6. Mix the ground almonds with the 1 tbsp caster sugar and a tiny pinch of salt — it lifts the almond flavour — then scatter over the pastry, leaving a 5cm border clear all the way round. The almond layer soaks up the fruit juice as it bakes; without it you'll find a wet patch in the middle of your galette.
7. Pile the strawberries into the centre on top of the almonds, leaving any pooled juice behind in the bowl — too much liquid floods the pastry. Fold the bare border up and over the fruit in loose pleats, working your way round so the centre stays open. Press each pleat gently so it sets in place.
8. Brush the pastry generously with egg wash, right into every pleat, and scatter the demerara thickly over the folds — that's what gives you the lacquered, crackly amber finish. Crack a little extra black pepper over the exposed fruit.
9. Slide the galette, still on its greaseproof, onto the preheated baking sheet. Bake for 35–40 minutes. You're after deep golden-brown pastry (pale pastry tastes raw and floury), the demerara on the edge gone glassy, and the fruit juice bubbling thickly in the centre — if it's still running like water, give it another 5 minutes.
10. Rest on the tray for at least 20 minutes before moving. The filling is molten out of the oven and needs time to set; cut too early and it floods the board.
11. To serve: slide the galette onto a board, scatter the small basil leaves and the extra halved strawberries over the top, add a final crack of black pepper, and bring it to the table with clotted cream or thick Greek yoghurt to spoon alongside each warm slice.