Galette

Artisanal Galette des Rois

Galette may also refer to a large, thin buckwheat flour pancake

Galette is a general term used in the French cuisine to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes, similar in concept to a Chinese bing. One notable type is the galette des Rois (King cake) eaten on the day of Epiphany. In French Canada, the term galette is usually applied to pastries best described as large cookies.

Galette, or more properly Breton galette (French: Galette bretonne, Breton: Krampouezhenn gwinizh du), is also the name given in most French crêperies to savoury buckwheat flour pancakes, while those made from wheat flour, much smaller in size and mostly served with a sweet filling, are branded crêpes. Galette is a type of thin large pancake mostly associated with the regions of Normandy and Brittany, where it replaced at times bread as basic food, but it is eaten countrywide. Buckwheat was introduced as a crop suitable to impoverished soils and buckwheat pancakes were known in other regions where this crop was cultivated, such as Limousin or Auvergne.

It is frequently garnished with egg, meat, fish, cheese, cut vegetables, apple slices, berries, or similar ingredients. One of the most popular varieties is a galette covered with grated Emmental cheese, a slice of ham and an egg, cooked on the galette. In France, this is known as a galette complète (a complete galette). A hot sausage wrapped in a galette (called galette saucisse, a tradition of Rennes, France) and eaten like a hot dog is becoming increasingly popular as well.

There is a children's song about galette:

"J'aime la galette, savez-vous comment ? Quand elle est bien faite, avec du beurre dedans." ("I like galette, do you know how? When it is made well, with butter inside.")

See also

• Kouign amann

External links

• Crêpes et Galettes Normandes au sarrasin.
• La Sauvegarde de la Galette Saucisse Bretonne