I had half a batch of flaky pastry lurking in my freezer, leftover from when I made a salted caramel apple crumble pie. I used some of the pastry to top a beef and mushroom pie defrosted, then mulled over whether I should make a tarte tartin or an apple galette with the remaining pastry. In the end this simple apple galette won out.
I turned to a Danielle Alvarez recipe for inspiration using my own pastry recipe. To make sure the pastry was extra flaky, I did a few book folds first. For the filling I used Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples 'cos that's what I had in the fruit bowl then I made an apple glaze with the cores and peels before assembling the tart.
Here's the recipe for you which makes an 8 inch galette. For all my
recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs.
My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to
reduce the temperature by 20°C.
Ingredients
½ quantity pastry (see below)
350g (2 large) apples of your choice
2 tsp plain flour
10g butter
2 tsp lemon juice
15g (1 tbs) caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon extra
Cream or milk for brushing
To serve
Ice cream, crème fraîche or lightly whipped cream
Pastry
2½ cups plain flour
1 pinch sea salt flakes
1 tbs (15g) caster sugar
250g cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
150 mls cold water
1 tbs lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
Apple peel glaze
Apple peels and cores
25g (1½ tbs) caster sugar
200 ml water
Pastry
Stir flour, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add butter and cut it into the flour with a pastry blender or your hands. Work quickly, cutting it in until mostly pea-size pieces of butter remain. You can also do this stage in a food processor.
Combine the water, lemon juice or vinegar in a measuring cup. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the water mixture over the flour mixture, and cut it in with a bench scraper, a spatula, or your hands until it’s fully incorporated. Add more of the water mixture, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, mixing each time until it just holds together (sprinkle dry bits with more small drops of water to combine if necessary). It should have streaks of butter.
Cut the dough into two, and shape each half into a flat disc. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. You’ll only need to use one disc of pastry for this recipe but the dough can be refrigerated for three days or frozen for one month.
Assembly
Roll the rested dough out into a 9 inch circle about 2 mm (⅛ in) thick and place it on a piece of baking paper. Refrigerate.
Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional and place a baking stone or an upturned baking sheet on the middle shelf.
Next, prepare the apples by peeling, quartering and coring them. Place the peels and cores in a small saucepan with the sugar for the apple glaze. Add the water, cover with a lid and simmer over a medium heat for 15 minutes.
Take your apple quarters and cut each quarter into thin slices. Keep the slices together so you can arrange them nicely on the dough.
Sprinkle the prepared dough with the flour and then spread it out evenly over the base using your hand. Arrange the apple slices on top in whatever pattern looks nicest to you. Concentric circles always look good, starting from the outside in, making sure you tightly fill the space with fruit. (It will shrink and move as it cooks, so make sure you use plenty.) Leave a 2 cm (¾ in) edge.
Melt the butter and mix in the lemon juice and the tablespoon of sugar. Spoon this mixture over the top of the apples only. Fold the edge of the dough up around the fruit. Brush the milk or cream over the folded edge of dough and sprinkle with half the extra sugar. Try to land as much sugar as possible directly on the crust and as little as possible on the baking paper. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the apple filling.
By this point, your apple peel glaze should be ready. Strain it into a clean saucepan and put it back on the stove to simmer and reduce until thickened and ‘glazy’. You only need about a tablespoon or so.
Transfer the galette to the oven, sliding it onto the baking stone or tray using the baking paper. Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 180°C, conventional and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, increase the temperature to 200°C, conventional and continue baking for 20–30 minutes until the crust is beautifully golden and the apples are browned on the edges.
At this stage, flip a baking tray upside down and carefully pull the galette onto the baking tray using the baking paper. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and pull the baking paper out from underneath the galette. If you leave the paper underneath, the base of the galette will steam and go soft.
When cooled but still slightly warm, brush the apple glaze on top of the apples. Enjoy with ice cream, crème fraîche, lightly whipped cream or just on its own.
A simple dessert but who can resist the combination of baked apple, flaky pastry, sugar and cream? It was delicious.
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian
