Galettes

Galette is a French term for a round, flat baked good that can be anything from what in English would be a cookie, a scone, a flat cake or a buckwheat crêpe.

In the English speaking world, Galette is generally taken to mean smallish rounds of flaky pastry, treated somewhat like a free-standing small pizza crust, on which savoury toppings or sweet fruit toppings are then baked. The edges may be folded up a bit.

Galette des Rois

In France, there is the "Galette des Rois" made for Twelfth Night (see separate entry.)

Galette de pommes

Galette de pommes de terre are potato pancakes (see separate entry.)

Galettes de Lisieux

Galettes de Lisieux are cookies made from flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and crème fraîche. The dough is rolled out to 1/2 (1.5 cm) inch thick, cut into rounds, placed on a greased baking sheet, and baked 20 to 25 minutes.

Galette de ménage

Galette de ménage is a specialty of the franche-comté area of France. A dough is made from flour, sugar, eggs, softened butter, warmed milk, orange blossom water, yeast, and salt. The dough is let rise a few times, then rolled out into large rounds, glazed with an egg, cream and sugar mix, and baked. It is sometimes served with fruit.

Brittany

In the eastern part of Brittany, they use the word Galette to mean savoury with buckwheat flour, and crêpe to mean sweet with white flour.

The buckwheat pancakes usually have just one side thorougly cooked; the other side may or may not have a few seconds on the griddle. In any event, the pancake is not meant to be completely browned, as it is returned to the griddle with toppings or fillings.

They are usually used as a savoury, rather than a dessert dish, with savoury fillings such as apple, bacon, cheese, eggs, ham, mushrooms, etc.

The topping or filling is made first, then a stack of pancakes, then the pancakes are wrapped around the fillings and are returned to the griddle for a few moments.

One with ham, egg and cheese is called a "galette complète." The edges of the pancake are folded up around the ham and cheese, leaving an open square in the middle. It's then placed onto the griddle, and the egg is cracked into the opening, being allowed to cook as one would a "sunny side up" fried egg.
Galette au beurre means just garnished with melted butter
Galette soubise is garnished with browned onions
Galette saucisse is wrapped around a sausage. It is meant to be held and eaten out of hand.

In the western, Breton-speaking part of Brittany, the word "krampouezhenn" is used, for sweet or savoury crepes, made either with buckwheat or wheat flour.

In the eastern part of Brittany, some people now are starting to make sweet buckwheat galettes, blurring the distinction as it is in the western part.

Acadia

Galette à la mélasse is a molasses cookie
Galette au sucre is a sugar cookie
Galette blanche is like a scone. A dough is made from flour, egg, fat, baking power, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt. The dough is rolled out and cut in rounds, then baked for about 10 minutes. "Galette de plomb" is a similar version made in French, minus the baking powder, and vanilla.

Acknowlegements

Delia Smith. Feta Cheese, Spinach and Pine Nut Galettes. Retrieved December 2008 from http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/feta-cheese-spinach-and-pine-nut-galettes,1115,RC.html

Willan, Anne. Galettes Bretonnes au Sarrasin in The Country Cooking of France. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 2007.