Buckwheat Galettes (Galette Complète)
Breakfast · Crepes · Flour · French · Gluten Free
The Breton buckwheat crêpe, made with no wheat at all, filled with ham, Emmental and an egg and folded into a square with the yolk showing. Buckwheat sets a thin, lacy, crisp sheet with no gluten.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here as the showcase for one flour in the Flour section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.
Ingredients
Batter
- 330 g buckwheat flour (Brittany PGI in the source)
- 75 cl (750 ml) water
- 10 g coarse salt
- 1 egg
Filling
- 4 eggs
- 4 slices good cooked ham
- 200 g grated Emmental
- Chives
- Butter for the pan
Directions
- Batter. Make a well in the flour, add the salt, and gradually beat in the water with a wooden spoon to avoid lumps. Beat in the egg. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours.
- Cook the galettes. Butter a non-stick pan over medium heat, ladle in batter and swirl it thin. Cook 1–2 minutes a side.
- Fill. Return a galette to the buttered pan. Add Emmental, a slice of ham and an egg (cracked on top, or scrambled separately), and season.
- Fold the four edges in to make a square with the egg showing in the centre, and cook until the cheese melts and the egg is done. Finish with chives.
Notes
Source Adapted from Myriam Baya, “Original French galette complète,” Taste France.
Not in the source The number of galettes and the pan size are not given, and the chives’ use is not described in the steps.
Why this flour The Breton galette is made from buckwheat alone. Buckwheat has no gluten, but its starch and proteins set a thin sheet in a very hot pan, crisp at the edge and earthy in flavour. Many Western versions add wheat flour; this one does not.
Not the biscuits The collection’s Galettes Bretonnes (Breton Salted Butter Cookies) are a different thing.
Safety Buckwheat is a serious allergen — a mandatory label item in Japan and Korea.
Gluten-free by ingredient: safe for coeliac disease only if every ingredient — flour, starch, baking powder — is labelled gluten-free. Naturally gluten-free flours are often contaminated with wheat in milling.
The Flour section of the Food site covers the history, the science, milling, label systems and every flour used here.