Galette Bretonne

Galette bretonne is a thin biscuit from Brittany made with wheat flour, eggs, sugar and butter. Bite into a single round and you can enjoy the aroma of salted butter and a light, crisp snap. It differs in both ingredients and cooking method from the savory buckwheat dish that is also called a galette in the same region. Set it beside the thick palet breton and the large gâteau breton, and the thinness of this sweet becomes clear.

Baking a Thin Salted-Butter Dough

For this sablé-type sweet, salted butter is softened and combined with the flour and other ingredients. In one method, egg yolks and sugar are beaten until pale, flour and baking powder are added, and then the butter is worked in; the butter is used without being melted. There is also a method that uses whole eggs, adding the eggs and butter to the flour, sugar and leavening agent and bringing everything together into a dough. Whether only yolks or whole eggs are used, and how much butter goes in relative to the flour, change how the dough comes together and how it bakes.

The dough is rolled thin and chilled because this makes it easier to keep the outlines and thickness even than handling it while it is soft. The rounds cut from the dough are laid out with room left for them to spread as they bake. Some are brushed with egg and scored with lines using a fork; others are stamped with the name of the town or the maker, or with Breton motifs. Once cooled, they become crisp, and marks representing the region or the maker remain on the surface.

A Sweet of the Same Name with Raisins in a 1900 Cookbook

The 1900 edition of Pierre Lacam’s pastry book also contains a recette (ingredient proportions and method) of the same name that uses milk, eggs, lemon and a leavening agent, contains Corinth raisins and is baked in a round ring. Under the old name, too, a combination of ingredients different from today’s thin biscuit is recorded.

The History Handed Down by Two Makers in Pont-Aven

Pont-Aven, also known as a town of painters, is also a place where this thin sweet is produced. The milestone in the Penven family’s baking history is 1890. Isidore Penven is said to have taken over the family bakery and popularized thin salted-butter galettes. There is also a story that they came about by accident when ingredient measurements were mixed up, but this is an origin story handed down by the maker.

The chronology of Traou Mad, in the same town, has different milestones. According to the company’s chronology, Alexis Le Villain commercialized the thick palet in 1920, and his daughter Marguerite created the company’s own thin galette de Pont-Aven in 1950. Thin galettes were already being made in this region before the company’s thin galette came into being.

Traou Mad means “good things” in Breton. In the 1980s, the company used works by Gauguin on its boxes, bringing a distinctive feature of Pont-Aven, known as a town of painters, onto its souvenir boxes as well. The stamps on the dough and the pictures on the boxes are also ways to learn about the town of Pont-Aven.

The Differences Between the Galette, the Palet and the Gâteau Breton

The thin galette, the thick palet and the large gâteau breton all have a buttery flavor but differ in shape and thickness. The buckwheat galette, on the other hand, is a savory dish made by spreading a high-moisture batter on a griddle. It differs from biscuits made with wheat flour and butter in both its ingredients and the way it is eaten.

Enjoying Them as Everyday Treats and at Celebrations

Galettes and palets are sold in the same shops and appear at family and religious celebrations as well as for snacks and afternoon treats. Served alongside cream or a fruit salad, they add the aroma of butter and a thin, crisp snap to the soft sweetness. Pairing them with a small bowl of cidre is also a combination handed down in the region. While they are souvenirs packed in boxes bearing the town’s name, at the table they are also sweets set out one at a time beside a drink or a dessert.

Glossary

Parade'sGalette Bretonne / Galette Bretonne

Cafe & Sweets Parade Kyoto, a Western-style confectionery shop in Fushimi-Momoyama, Kyoto, makes this Galette Bretonne, which carries the aroma of cultured butter.

The galette bretonne is a thick-baked cookie that has long been loved in the Brittany region of France. Ours has a rich, mellow flavor. Cultured butter is used so generously that it makes up as much as 1/3 of the dough, and its full flavor combines with the gentle taste of eggs and a soft aroma of rum. Within its crunchy bite is a texture that crumbles tenderly in the mouth. We season it with Guérande salt, a specialty of Brittany, to bring out the flavors, and we are proud of the result.

Learn more about this product