Helen Goh’s recipe for peach, blackberry, ricotta and thyme galette | The sweet spot
By late summer, peaches are often past their peak for eating raw, being perhaps a little floury or shy on juice.That fading sweetness pairs beautifully with the first flush of wild blackberries, however, and this galette makes the most of that overlap: slices of peach and a handful of blackberries sit on a gently sweetened ricotta base that’s flavoured with brown sugar, orange zest and a few sprigs of thyme.The ricotta bakes into something soft and creamy that catches those juices as the fruits slump.This is best served when barely warm, with vanilla ice-cream.Prep 15 minChill 1 hr+ Cook 1 hr 20 min Serves 6-8For the pastry 185g plain flour, plus extra for dusting¼ tsp fine sea salt⅛ tsp baking powder 120g cold unsalted butter, cubed85g cream cheese 1-2 tbsp double cream 2 tsp cider vinegarFor the orange ricotta base150g ricotta 30g light brown sugar Finely grated zest of 1 orange – save the juice for the peaches1 tsp thyme leaves, finely chopped⅛ tsp fine sea saltFor the peaches 2 ripe peaches, halved, stoned and each half cut into 8 wedges2 tbsp caster sugar 1 tbsp cornflour 2 tsp orange juice 2 tsp thyme leaves ⅛ tsp fine sea salt 100g blackberries, halved if largeTo glaze 1 small egg, lightly beaten1 tbsp demerara sugarTo make the pastry, put the flour, salt and baking powder in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine and aerate.
Add the cubed butter and pulse again until it is broken down into small pieces.Add the cream cheese and pulse until the mix looks like damp and unevenly sized crumbs.Add a tablespoon of the cream and the vinegar, then pulse until the mix just starts to come together into a dough (if it doesn’t, pulse in the second tablespoon of cream).Tip out the pastry on to a lightly floured work surface, gather and press it into one piece, then wrap loosely in clingfilm, press to flatten into a disc and refrigerate for at least an hour, and up to two days.Once chilled, make the ricotta base by mixing all the ingredients in a small bowl.
Combine all the ingredients for the peaches except the blackberries in a second bowl, toss gently to combine, then set aside.Heat the oven to 210C (190C fan)/410F/gas 6½.Take the pastry out of the fridge, put it on a large sheet of baking paper, then roll it out evenly into a large, roughly 36-38cm-diameter circle that’s about 2mm thick.Don’t worry if the edges are irregular; that’s all part of the charm of a galette.Lift the baking paper along with the pastry on to a large baking tray, then spread the ricotta mix evenly on top, leaving a 4-5cm border all around the edge.
Add the blackberries to the peach bowl, toss gently, then spoon the fruit on top of the ricotta.Carefully draw the border of the pastry up and over the fruit, roughly pleating it as you go and leaving the centre of the galette exposed.Brush the pastry border with egg wash, then sprinkle with the demerara sugar and bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown.Leave the galette to rest and cool a little, then slice and serve.
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The Guide #206: Indie bands are quitting Spotify, what could it mean for the future of music streaming?
At the moment, the Spotify exodus of 2025 is a trickle rather than a flood. A noticeable trickle, like a leak from the upstairs bathroom dribbling down the living room wall, but nothing existential yet. The five notable bands who have left Spotify in the past month – shoegazers Hotline TNT last week, joining Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GY!BE) and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – are well liked in indie circles, but aren’t the sorts to rack up billions of listens. Still, it feels significant if only because, well, this sort of thing wasn’t really supposed to happen any more.The Guardian’s journalism is independent
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