On Frebruary 2nd Candlemas is celebrated in many parts of the world eating pancakes. In France, we eat crepes. There already is a sweet crepes recipe on this site, Candlemas is the perfect occasion to share with you the most famous galette (crepe made with buckweat flour) : la complète. Very simple; ham, cheese and egg… but you can always add it mushrooms, tomatoes or all kinds of cheese. You can basically put whatever dish you want in a galette, it goes from the simplest ham & cheese to more elaborated ones with scallops, salmon or duck! Galettes are from Brittany (north-western France) and were originally a dish made by poor families to replace bread. They wrapped inside all the leftovers. The original recipe only counts with buckwheat flour, salt and water. I usually add it an egg, it makes it easier to prepare

Preparation time : 10 mn (+ at least 2 h in the fridge)

Ingredients (for 12 to 15 galettes)

5 cups of buckwheat flour
4 cups of water (more or less)
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
butter

Garniture (per galette)

1 egg
1/8 lbs (55 gr/2 oz) of grated cheese
1 slice of ham

Instructions

1/ Blend flour, egg and salt.

2/ Gradually add water. Stir energetically until smooth. (It has to be liquid)

3/ Leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

4/ Heat a large frying pan (diameter of at least 15 inches is best)  over medium high heat. Melt butter. (Be careful not to put too much butter, your crepes would be too greasy and not easy to cook) (Click here to buy crepes cooking material).

5/ Pour about 1/4 cup of mixture in the pan making a circle. Then tilt the pan with a circular motion so the mixture fills the pan evenly.
(Note: galettes are supposed to be thin, if you make them like pancakes, it won’t be good at all)

6/ Cook galette for about 2mn or until borders peel off and bottom is slightly brown. Turn and cook the other side (1mn should be enough).

7/ Make all galettes at once, you’ll go faster serving your guests later.

8/  Melt butter in a frying pan over medium high heat. Heat galette quickly on one side (10 sec), then turn it to the other side.

9/ Add egg and grated cheese. When egg is cooked and cheese melted, add ham, salt and pepper and close borders.

10/ Serve it and repeat for the next guest! It’s best eaten warm, so don’t wait for everyone to be served in order to start enjoying!

As I said before, you can put whatever ingredient you want in a galette. Just remember to adapt your ingredients cooking time. In that one, you can add mushrooms. If you cook them appart before (with some garlic and parsley for example), then you add them at the end. But if you add them rare, better putting them at the begining… Nothing very complicated