Mixed Berry Galette with Almond Cream

Start with the berries. They should be at the peak of their season, heavy with juice, staining your fingers when you handle them. Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, whatever the farm stand has in abundance. If the fruit is right, you are already most of the way there.

A galette forgives what a tart does not. The crust does not need to be even. The edges do not need to be perfect. You fold them over by hand, each one different, each one yours. This is peasant baking, the kind that came before precision, before Instagram, before anyone worried about whether their pastry looked professional.

The almond cream beneath the berries is worth knowing. French bakers call it frangipane. It is nothing more than butter, sugar, ground almonds, and an egg, beaten together until pale. It cushions the fruit, absorbs some of the juice, and bakes into something tender and fragrant that makes people ask what you did.

Every meal is a meaningful choice. A galette made with good butter from pastured cows, eggs from hens that see daylight, and berries picked this morning tastes different from one made with anonymous ingredients. The farmers who grow your food deserve your attention. So does your family, gathered around the table on the Fourth of July, waiting for you to cut the first slice.