Galettes (savoury, Allergy Friendly Pancake)

Galettes are a French recipe that takes on a few different forms across France. Galettes de sarrasin are a thin savoury pancake made from buckwheat flour. Recipes vary from person to person but so I'll show you a basic recipe a variation and some fillings options.

In its most basic form Galettes are made from buckwheat flour, salt and water and thus is free of the 8 major allergens, and also gluten free. I'll be making Galettes Bretonne as an example which is filled with egg, ham and cheese, but you can customize to your needs.

Step 1: Base Ingredients

For about 10 galettes
1. Buckwheat flour (330 grams / 3 cups)
2. water (750 ml / 3 cups)
3. salt (3 teaspoons)
4. egg (optional, added only for colour and flavour)

You can see the basic recipe is pretty easy to scale especially if you omit the egg. The recipe is fairly forgiving so there is no need to be super exact about measurements.

Step 2: Utensiles

1. medium or large mixing bowl
2. A whisk, sturdy fork and or wooden spoon
3. low sided frying pan, sometimes called a crepe pan.
4. egg slide, spatula or crepe spatula


In principle you can use any frying pan but as the sides get higher it gets trickier to flip the galette.

Step 3: Mix

Mix your buckwheat flour, salt, the optional egg and enough water to make stiff batter. When you mix a thick batter the stirring force breaks up any lumps, if the mix is too runny mixing just pushes lumps around. Give the stiff batter a quick mix before adding the rest of the water. The texture may seem a little strange.

Step 4: Key Concepts

There are several key concepts to making a good galette



1. A quick wipe of the pan before each galette. I rub the hot pan with a paper towel dipped in oil, this removes an food that may cause sticking to the base of the pan and re-oils the surface. you can use the same paper towel several times, toss it when it gets yuck. Mind your fingers!!
2. Keep toppings/fillings to a minimum. We all love Chicago deep pan pizza, but galettes are about restraint. It will be easier to fold and keep its shape with a minimum of fillings. If your still hungry just make a second.
3. Think about ingredients in terms of their cook time and their adhesive qualities. For instance if you making a the classic galette Brettone filled with ham cheese and egg, the egg will take a while to cook so put that on first, while the egg and the melted cheese will help "glue" the sides in place.
4. If your cooking for multiple people (3 or more) consider extra crepe pans or everyone will be waiting for a while...

Step 5: Cook First Side

Get your pan warm.



• Your pan is too cold if the galette seems to crack excessively, a few cracks will be fine.
• your pan is too hot if your mix bubbles and sears when pour it onto your pan


Pour enough batter onto the crepe pan to make a pancake a few millimeters thick (about 1/16 of an inch). Angle the pan to spread the mix around, or use spatula.

When the galette starts to pull away from the pan its ready to be turned place the spatula under the gallete and loosen the crepe everywhere making sure there are no parts sticking.

Now in one fluid pick the galette up with the spatula and flip it over.

Step 6: Add Ingredients and Shape

Now its just a matter of adding your ingredients and shaping as you want

For galettes Brettone:



• Add the egg first, let it cook a little
• Then add ham and cheese
• Fold in 4 edges making a square leaving the yolk visible.

Step 7: Other Favourites

Other combinations might be



• Cooked spinach & mushrooms, with feta and pine nuts
• Sausage rolled up in the galette
• Long strips of zucchini and goats cheese rolled up in the galette
• Smoked salmon, Crème fraîche /sour cream and a few capers, and a touch of lemon juice
• Chunks of ham, red onion Crème fraîche - like a Alsatian flammkuchen


Enjoy.