A rustic blueberry galette or blueberry crostata is an easy to make dessert. Fresh juicy blueberries are baked in a crisp and flaky crust for an open faced dessert that tastes delicious, looks impressive and can be made in less than 30 minutes.
I love to make easy desserts, especially easy desserts with my favorite fruit, blueberries. Recipes like blueberry upside down cake, lemon blueberry cookies and blueberry lemon trifle are quick and easy ways to enjoy fresh summery blueberries.
This blueberry galette, also called blueberry crostata, is a rustic open faced blueberry pie that takes no special pans or tools to make. A free form crust is folded by hand around a blueberry filling for a simple yet elegant dessert.
I am always looking for things I can make that will look like I spent more time and effort making than I really did! I guess I am kind of a lazy cook at heart – most of the time I value simplicity and ease of preparation. And this blueberry galette is a perfect low effort dessert.
What is the Difference Between a Galette and a Crostata?
This dessert is called either a blueberry galette or a blueberry crostata. The only difference between the two is the language the name comes from. Galette is the French name for the dessert and crostata is from Italian.
I live in an area with a large Italian American population, so when I see this dessert at a store around here it is called a crostata. But I usually call it a galette, which comes from the French word for flat cake.
But either way the dessert is the same – a rustic, free form tart made without a pan. Tarts are made in a tart pan, pies are made in a pie pan and can have a double crust. A galette or crostata is a single crust open face pie that is cooked on a baking sheet. All these desserts are delicious, but a galette or crostata is the simplest to make.
Pie Crust for Blueberry Galette
Pie crust is one of the most important ingredients in the blueberry galette, and I usually just use a pre-made refrigerated pie crust. The whole idea of this dessert for me is to make it quickly, and making a pie crust isn’t difficult, but does add time. But you can use my easy pie crust recipe if you prefer to make your own crust!
Should I Use Fresh or Frozen Blueberries?
You can use either fresh or frozen blueberries for this dessert. However it is a simple dessert and blueberries are the most important ingredient. So it will taste better if you have fresh, ripe blueberries. But if you don’t have fresh blueberries you can substitute frozen ones without changing the recipe.
Of course it will taste best of all if you have fresh blueberries that you picked yourself. Blueberries are a fun berry to pick because the bushes are up off the ground which makes them easy picking. My kids and I enjoy picking fresh berries at least once or twice each summer!
How to Make a Blueberry Galette
Making the blueberry galette filling takes only a few minutes. Mix the fresh or frozen blueberries with a little bit of sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cornstarch and small pieces of butter.
I prefer to add only a few teaspoons of sugar to this dessert. Blueberries are naturally sweet and don’t need much additional sugar to be delicious. Plus I like to sprinkle sugar on the crust before baking, so the dessert will be sweet enough.
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The citrus flavor of the fresh squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest enhances the flavor of the blueberries. It takes only a few minutes to zest and juice a lemon and the fresh flavor it adds is worth the small amount of effort.
The cornstarch combines with the butter to thicken the filling so it doesn’t run out of the crust all over the oven. I also sometimes make this replacing the butter with coconut oil, since my son can’t eat dairy products. Since the blueberries are the star of the dessert the lack of butter doesn’t matter much!
Forming the Blueberry Galette
Put the pie crust on a baking sheet that you have covered in parchment paper. The parchment paper will prevent you from needing to scrub burnt on filling off the cookie sheet, because inevitably a little bit will leak out of the crust.
The carefully spoon the filling into the middle of the crust. Then gently fold the sides of the pie crust up around the filling, pinching them together.
Then make an egg wash by putting an egg in a bowl and stirring it vigorously with a fork. Brush the outside of the pie crust with the egg wash and sprinkle it with sugar. I used decorative sparking sugar, but turbanido sugar works too. And if you don’t have either of those sprinkle on some regular granulated sugar. It won’t look quite as pretty, because the sugar crystals are smaller, but it will still taste good!
Then bake the blueberry galette for about 20 minutes and dessert is ready! The egg wash makes the crust a nice golden brown and the sugar makes the dessert look fancy and elegant.
What to Serve With Blueberry Galette
You can serve this dessert as is for a simple yet delicious dessert. But topping it off with a bit of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream is sure to make it even more of a family favorite dessert! My kids love to use lots of whipped cream on their blueberry crostata.
Blueberry galette is simple enough to serve on a busy weeknight but it is also elegant enough to make for a holiday dessert. A holiday dessert table with three or four galettes would be quite sophisticated and different from traditional pies.
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Can You Freeze Galette?
You can freeze a blueberry galette. The best way to do that is to make the filling and assemble the galette on a baking sheet, just as if you were baking it. But instead of baking it put it in the freezer on the tray for a couple hours. After that take it out, wrap it well and return it to the freezer.
It should keep frozen for about a month. When you are ready to bake it let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Then bake it as indicated in the recipe.
Blueberry Galette
Ingredients
- 1 refrigerator pie crust
- 1 pint fresh blueberries
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 lemon
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 egg
- 2 Tablespoons decorative sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 F.
- Put a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Then unroll the pie crust onto the baking sheet.1 refrigerator pie crust
- Juice and zest the lemon. Cut the butter into small pieces.1 lemon
- In a bowl mix the berries with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and half the lemon juice. Stir in the butter.1 pint fresh blueberries, 2 teaspoons sugar, 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, 1 Tablespoon butter
- Put the filling in the middle of the unrolled pie crust, leaving an inch and a half edge clear. Gently fold up the edge of the pie crust to cover the filling, pinching it as you fold it.
- Put the egg in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix. Brush the egg onto the edge of the crust. Then sprinkle the edges with decorative sugar or turbinado sugar.1 egg, 2 Tablespoons decorative sugar
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. It is done when the edges are golden brown and the blueberries in the middle are bubbly.
Notes
- Use my easy pie crust recipe for a delicious homemade crust.
- Frozen blueberries can be used in the recipe without thawing.
- You can easily make this recipe vegan by using a vegan pie crust, using coconut oil instead of butter and brushing the pie crust with water instead of egg.
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Nutrition Information
Nutrition facts are estimates.
This recipe was easy to make and looked delicious. We found, however, that it was not sweet enough. Next time, I will definitely add more sugar.
This is my go to recipe during blueberry season! Simple and delicious. I skip the egg wash and just brush with water before adding the sugar and it works fine. Thank you for sharing.
Perhaps there is a typo on the 2tsp. Sugar because another recipe that is identical except for the sugar, says to use 1/3 cup sugar. I think 1/4 cup would also be fine if you wanted to use less sugar. I’ve used both and liked it.