That was until I started smelling burning. I turned around and noticed faint wisps of smoke coming out of the oven. I high tailed over there, opened the oven door, and saw flames licking the bottom. Ahhh! As this was happening, my older brother was still asleep on the living room couch, about 7 feet away from 2 panicked teenagers. For whatever reason, I didn’t want to wake up my brother, so I closed the kitchen door to contain the smoke (and quite possibly suffocate myself). I was 15. My friend A started fanning the flames with magazines, and I reached over for the fire extinguisher. I told A, “I will bust this open if I have to!” I had no idea how to use it . . . still don’t. We finally put out the flames but the entire kitchen was clouded in a thick layer of white haze. It was a debacle, but everything cleared after 30 minutes, and I was so glad that we didn’t burn my house down. We still made our brownies. My brother was still sound asleep. All was good in the world. When we got the situation under control, I decided to Sherlock Holmes the situation to figure out the cause of the burning. You probably don’t know this, but Chinese families rarely use their oven for baking, if ever. It is first and foremost a space in the kitchen to store pots and pans. Seriously, ask your Chinese friends. So on that day, even though I removed all of Mama Lin’s pots and pans before preheating the oven, I failed to notice that someone shoved my plastic Looney Tunes jello mould in the back corner of the oven. Only in Mama Lin’s house, right? So whenever I bake, I always think of that story and why I should always, always triple check the oven before I turn it on. You can definitely customize this recipe to whatever fruits you have on hand. Peaches, plums, or any other berries work wonderfully. I used turbinado and muscovado sugar in this recipe because I’m still on my mission to cook with unrefined and less refined sugars. However, you can easily substitute them with plain granulated sugar or light brown sugar. There’s nothing like a good galette to get us in the mood for summer, right?
KITCHEN TIP: HOW TO MAKE WHIPPED CREAM IN A JAR
Like your pies with a small dollop of whipped cream? Try it with some homemade whipped cream! If you try this recipe, let me know how it goes by leaving a comment or tagging me in a photo for Instagram! I love seeing your creations! NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
