Stop the presses! This low carb cranberry walnut galette is a delicious addition to your healthy holiday menu. It’s easy to make and is an elegant grain-free dessert.
I don’t think I will every fully accept the fact that American Thanksgiving is so close to Christmas. No matter how long I live on this side of the border, I will always feel that something is out of wack when two of the most popular and celebrated holidays are all smooshed in within a month of each other. It just doesn’t make any sense to my little Canadian brain. It feels like Americans are trying to make things more difficult for themselves, this slight panicky sense that “The Holidays” are crashing upon you in one big wave (you might actually drown). You may disagree with me, but I think it’s ever so much more civilized to have them further apart so that one gets a bit of a breather between them. You get to focus more on each and give them the rightful attention they deserve.
I see this panic all the time down here and indeed, I feel it myself a little every year. October goes by without incident, no real holiday to speak of. Most of November creeps by unawares and then suddenly, BAM! It’s holiday season and you’ve got to get your crap together because it’s going to move fast. Dizzyingly fast. Hold onto your hats, kids, we are less than one week from holiday lift off! You now need to make a huge feast for family and friends, pulling out all the stops on everyone’s favourite holiday dish. And once everyone has had their fill and you’ve washed the last of the dishes, you now need to plunge right into planning for Big Feast #2. Not to mention finding and purchasing just the right present for everyone, wrapping those presents, helping the kids write to Santa, taking the kids to SEE Santa, decorating the tree, decorating the house, baking cookies for neighbours and friends, going to the holiday office party, going to multiple other holiday parties, possibly hosting a holiday party, eating too much, drinking too much, staying up late on Christmas Eve to stuff those stockings once the kids are asleep, and finally collapsing into your bed at about midnight, only to be wakened by over-excited little buggers of children at 6am. Damn, I need some coffee.
Thanksgiving at the end of November lulls you into a sense of complacency. You think to yourself that there’s no real rush, Thanksgiving is still to come, you can think about Christmas after the turkey is consumed. Which is all fine and good if Thanksgiving is at the beginning of October, because that gives you approximately 10 weeks to manage the holiday madness. You can ease into it, take your time with it, warm up to it slowly. That’s the Canadian way. But in the US, if you wait until after Thanksgiving to think about Christmas, you are screwed. Less than a full month between the two holidays? Madness, pure madness.
So, here we are, one week from Thanksgiving. And I’ve got a great low carb dessert to add to your list of to-dos. Sorry about that! But this one is good and relatively easy to make, so it should definitely be in the running (especially for folks who may not love pumpkin or pecan pie). The crust is fragile and a little tricky to fold, but it patches back together nicely. And it crisps up nicely too. I was worried about the bottom part of the crust being soggy with all the juice from the cranberries, but it wasn’t at all. It is definitely a dessert that is best consumed the day it’s baked, though.
It would also make a fabulous Christmas recipe, if you have moved on to planning Feast #2 already. And if there are any leftovers, they make a great breakfast or brunch treat!
Cranberry Walnut Galette
Ingredients
Filling:
- 2 cups cranberries
- ¾ cups chopped walnuts
- ½ cup granulated Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Crust:
- 1 ¼ cup almond flour
- 2 tablespoon coconut flour
- 2 tablespoon arrowroot starch OR 2 tablespoon oat fiber, for THM
- 1 tablespoon granulated Swerve Sweetener
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoon butter chilled and cut into small pieces
- 2-4 tablespoon ice water
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
Filling:
- In a medium bowl, combine the cranberries, chopped walnuts, Swerve, and orange zest. Toss well to combine and let sit while preparing crust.
Crust:
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Combine almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot starch, sweetener, xanthan gum, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine. Sprinkle surface with butter pieces and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Alternatively, you can cut butter into almond flour mixture using a pastry cutter. This takes some time but it works!
- With processor running on low, add ice water, one tablespoon at time until dough begins to clump together. Or cut in water with a pastry cutter until dough begins to clump together.
- Place a large piece of parchment on work surface and dust liberally with additional almond flour. Turn out dough and pat into a circle. Sprinkle with more almond flour and cover with another large piece of parchment. Roll dough out to a 13-inch circle.
- Cover pastry with cranberry mixture, leaving about a 2 inch border. Fold edges of pastry over the filling, pleating as necessary. If the pastry cracks and breaks, simply patch it back together. Transfer the galette, still on the parchment paper, to a large cookie sheet.
- In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and water. Brush over pastry crust.
- Bake 40 minutes, until pastry is golden brown and filling is soft and bubbling. You may need to cover with foil partway through if your pastry is browning too quickly before your cranberries have softened.
- Remove and let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. Work a sharp knife or offset spatula gently under the bottom to lift. Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Notes
Total fat: 18.19g
Calories from fat: 163
Cholesterol: 33mg
Carbohydrate: 8.76g
Total dietary fiber: 3.68g
Chelsie Cryer says
Will this crust keep well if prepared ahead of time? Thank you!
Carolyn says
No, fathead dough loses elasticity as it sits.
ChapelHillBetsy says
I plan on making this for Thanksgiving. In the spirit of doing prep work ahead of time, would it negatively inpact this recipe if the crust was made the day before?
Carolyn says
Yep, it sure would, unfortunately. Fathead dough loses elasticity as it cools.
Cheri says
This recipe looks really yummy. Every year I see everyone all stressed out holiday time and I’m ever so grateful I don’t have to worry about any of the holidays. We have chosen to not celebrate Christmas and many other holidays due to their pagan roots and commercialism. Christmas Day, my husband and I usually take our kids skiing or ice skating. We give gifts year round…. when we sincerely want to. Love it!
Miriam Zappala says
I made this gallete today and used an egg yolk with a tablespoon of water at the end like the recipe indicates but the egg got seaped into the dough and the gallete came out very light in color without any shine….. any suggestions?
Carolyn says
Hmmm, no real suggestions here. Not sure why that happened!
Pam says
Outstanding desert or for breakfast with a cup of coffee. I made two, one with cranberries one with blueberries. Thanks Carolyn for your wonderful recipes, photos.
ardith says
beautiful!! – i will certainly be adding this to my baking/goodie ‘arsenal’! thank you for sharing!! 🙂
Jane says
I would love to prepare this for Christmas, This is the perfect dessert for me. It’s filling and family would love it.
Keri Bucci says
Wow, this looks amazing! I think I will share your post on my Facebook page and let everyone enjoy your delicious work too! I will send them here so they can show you some love for all your hard work! I so can’t wait to try this!
Carolyn says
Thanks!
Roseann says
I’m born and raised in the U.S. and I agree with you. I resent Thanksgiving sometimes because it’s a hurdle to jump before getting to Christmas!
That said, I’ve never made a galette but I will definitely try this out for a Christmas gathering.
Thank you for your delicious and beautiful recipes, Carolyn!
Diana says
I made the crust above and filled it with my “apple” pie filling (some chayotes I had cooked and sweetened and flavored with cinnamon and lemon juice.) This crust was simply amazing, short, crisp, flaky, everything a pie crust should be! I will try the cranberry/walnut filling, but meanwhile I am delighted to find a wonderful pie crust for any filling!
Carolyn says
I saw on Facebook, they look great!
Judy C says
What size pan is it cooked in, or did I miss the pan size?
Carolyn says
No pan at all…it’s cooked on parchment on a cookie sheet. Let me go look at the instructions and make sure that is clear.
Sarah G says
This looks like it should be on the cover of the most amazing, fancy, baking book ever! I want to shove it all in my mouth. Definitely putting it on my must-bake list!
Elaine Markley says
Well this looks seriously wonderful! Would refrigerating the dough make it easier to roll out?
Carrie says
Uh…hello! Everyone knows that SANTA stuffs the stockings! ;0)
This looks seriously delicious. Do you think pecans would work well in place of walnuts? I love walnuts, but the rest of my family doesn’t so much. That could mean more for me, though!
Susan says
Sounds amazing! Do you think this crust would hold up to an apple filling?
Carolyn says
Apples are pretty juicy so it’s really hard to say. I’d probably pre-cook the apples a bit, then drain them, then add them.
Susan McIntyre says
Great, I think I will try that.
Pam says
That’s it. We have a little coffee and dessert get together with ‘framily’ New Year’s Day and this will be perfect. 😉