Breton Buckwheat Crepe Bites With Goat Cheese and Beets

These are Breton galettes cut down to the size of a coin and stacked into canapés. Maison Bordier makes a plain buckwheat crepe batter, cooks it thin, then cuts disks and layers them with two fillings: fresh goat cheese whipped with garden herbs, and a beet puree sharpened with balsamic. There is no difficult technique here, but there is a great deal of repetition, which is why Bordier rates it as hard. Budget an afternoon.

Why this works

Buckwheat is the flour Brittany built its cooking on, and a galette de sarrasin is deliberately austere: flour, salt, water, and nothing else. No egg, no milk, no fat in the batter. That plainness is what makes it a good base here. The crepe tastes nutty and faintly bitter, and it holds its shape when cut, so it can carry two soft, wet fillings without turning to pulp. The goat cheese brings acid and salt, the beet puree brings sweetness and color, and the buckwheat sits underneath both without competing.

Bordier's own ingredient list for this recipe names no butter, which is unusual for them and worth saying plainly. The batter genuinely does not need any, and the pan is greased with a fat-soaked cloth in the traditional Breton way. Where butter belongs is either on that cloth or on the table. If you want to make the buckwheat theme explicit, Bordier's Buckwheat Butter came out of a Breton chef's suggestion in 2016 and folds roasted buckwheat into the churn, bringing two Breton staples into one block. All Bordier butter is churned by hand in Brittany on a traditional wooden malaxeur.

Ingredients

Serves 4. Metric is what Bordier specifies, so treat it as the accurate column. The 250 g of goat cheese covers both fillings: 200 g for the herb mixture and 50 g for the beet puree.

Ingredient	Metric	US
Organic buckwheat flour	250 g	8 3/4 oz, about 2 cups
Salt, for the batter	2.5 g	About 1/2 tsp
Mineral water	50 cl, 500 ml	About 2 cups
Farm fresh goat cheese	250 g total	8 3/4 oz total
Garden herbs: chives, dill, chervil, parsley	To taste	To taste
Cooked beets	150 g	About 5 1/4 oz
Balsamic vinegar	5 g	About 1 tsp
Salt and freshly ground pepper, for the fillings	To taste	To taste

Method

Step 1: Mix the galette batter

Make the savory crepe batter from 250 g organic buckwheat flour, 2.5 g salt, and 50 cl mineral water. Combine the three and stir until the batter is smooth. Set it aside somewhere cool. While it rests, start on the fillings. The herbed goat cheese uses 200 g of the farm fresh goat cheese, garden herbs, salt, and freshly ground pepper.

Step 2: Make the two fillings

Chop all the herbs finely and mix them into the goat cheese with the seasoning. The filling needs to be smooth but thick enough that it will not run across the plate during assembly. Taste and adjust. If you are working with something loose, strain or drain it through clean cheesecloth or a dish towel to pull out the excess water, then set aside. For the beet puree, use 150 g cooked beets, 50 g farm fresh goat cheese, 5 g balsamic vinegar, salt, and freshly ground pepper. Drain the beets, blend everything until smooth, season to taste, and set aside.

Step 3: Cook the galettes and assemble

Cook Breton crepes in a very hot pan, or on a billig, using a cloth soaked in fat to grease the surface. Let them cool, then cut them into small disks with a cutter. On a square plate like the one in Bordier's photograph, that works out to 32 circles per person, 128 in total. To plate, set the crepe disks in the center of each plate and pipe or spoon the two purees on, alternating the colors. Cap each bite with another disk and finish with flowers, herbs, or whatever else you like.

Tips from our kitchen

• Rest the batter properly. Bordier says to set it aside in a cool place but gives no time. Our guidance is at least two hours, and overnight is better. Buckwheat has no gluten to relax, but it does need time to hydrate. An unrested batter cooks into a gritty, brittle galette that shatters when you cut it.
• Cook the galettes thinner than feels right. These are being cut into small disks and stacked two deep, so a thick crepe makes a bite nobody can eat in one go. Spread the batter as thin as the pan allows and expect it to look almost translucent.
• Cut the disks while the crepes are flat and fully cool. Warm galettes tear under a cutter, and curled edges give you ragged circles. Stack them flat under a plate as they cool.
• The goat cheese must be stiff. This is the failure point. If the herb filling slumps, every bite collapses within minutes of plating. Beat it firm, and if it still moves, drain it in cheesecloth as the recipe suggests.
• Ignore the reference to Greek yogurt. Bordier's step 2 mentions straining runny Greek yogurt, but no yogurt appears in the ingredient list. Read it as general advice about draining a wet filling rather than a missing ingredient.
• Assemble late. Buckwheat softens on contact with a moist filling. Cut and cook ahead by all means, but do not stack the bites until close to serving.

How to serve it

This is aperitif food, and it looks its best on a large flat plate where the alternating pink and green rounds can be read as a pattern. Serve them cool, not chilled, with a bowl of Breton cider or a dry white. Any galette offcuts left over from cutting the disks are worth keeping: crisp them in a dry pan and eat them warm with a knob of good butter, which is the most Breton thing you can do with them. If you are deciding which French butter to keep on hand for that, our buyer's guide to French butter is a good place to start.

Where to buy Bordier butter in the US

The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.

Bordier's ingredient list for this recipe does not name one of their butters, so nothing here is required. What the method does call for is a fat-soaked cloth to grease the pan, and a Breton galette wants Breton butter. Our recommendation:

• Churned Buckwheat Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): roasted buckwheat folded into the churn, which puts the same grain in the pan as in the batter.

For a plainer option, or for the rest of the range, browse the Maison Bordier collection.

Frequently asked questions

How much butter do I need to buy?

The recipe as Bordier publishes it calls for no butter at all. Greasing the pan takes very little, so one 125 g block, 4.4 oz, is more than enough for a full batch of galettes with plenty left for the table.

Which Bordier butter substitutes best here?

Buckwheat butter is our first choice for the buckwheat theme. Salted butter is the plainer and more traditional option for greasing a billig, and it will not compete with the fillings at all.

Can I make the galettes ahead?

Yes. Cook them a day ahead, cool them flat, and keep them stacked between sheets of parchment in the refrigerator. Cut the disks on the day, and assemble as close to serving as you can manage.

Does this really make 128 bites?

That is Bordier's own figure for a square plate at 32 circles per person. It is a presentation count rather than an appetite count, and a smaller number of larger disks works just as well.

How do I store the butter?

Keep it wrapped and refrigerated, and use it by the date on the pack. It freezes for up to three months if wrapped tightly.

Does the butter need refrigeration?

Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Move it to the refrigerator as soon as it arrives.

Related reading

• Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
• Paysan Breton: The Breton Butter Guide
• How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide

Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.