Sweet Potato, Corn, Cheddar Galette with Pickled Jalapeños

First, make pickled jalapenos. You can make these up to a week before. Just slice jalapenos, put them in a Mason jar that has a lid. Throw in all the other ingredients and shake vigorously for 2 minutes. Throw it in the fridge for at least a couple hours before using.

For the galette dough, mix flour, garlic powder and salt together. Cut butter into flour mixture. You can use a fancy pastry cutter but I use a pair of clean hands. Start by cutting small pieces (the butter should be straight from the fridge). Add pieces of cut up butter to flour mixture and smoosh the pieces between your hands.

You’ll still be able to see small clumps of butter in the dough. Add ice water and continue to mix together until it forms a mass. If you need to, add more ice water slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time. Those small pieces of cold butter in the dough is what makes this baby flaky and pastry-like.

Once everything comes together into a ball of dough, divide in two, wrap each in plastic. Put one in the fridge (you’ll use this today) and one in the freezer (you’ll use this another day).

Let this sit in the fridge while you prepare the filling. Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Cut sweet potato into small chunks and start sauteing this in some olive oil on the stove, medium heat. Cut onion into small pieces and throw in. After about 10 minutes, add corn kernels. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper along the way. The whole thing should take about 20 minutes. You want the sweet potato soft, almost cooked through.

Roll out galette dough on a lightly floured surface so it doesn’t stick to the counter. You won’t need much flour to roll this out, since it will be very very cold. If it starts to get warm and sticky, just throw it in the fridge. Again, we want these butter chunks cold when they hit the oven.

Once rolled out to about ¼ inch thickness (a little thicker than cardboard), spread shredded cheddar on the bottom. Then top with filling so it sits in the center of dough, about 2 inches around the edges. Top with chopped jalapenos.

Fold exposed border over the fillings, crimp to make a pretty design but remember the charm is in the imperfections. Brush edges of dough with beaten egg (this makes it brown) and top the edges with more cheese, because duh.

Let this whole thing chill in the fridge for another 10 minutes (again, cold butter). Then this goes into the oven for about 35–45 minutes. The crust will be golden. Top with more pickled jalapenos because they are everything.