apricot and cream cheese galette

apricot and cream cheese galette

• 18 Feb 2024

In 2022, I made a yeasted apricot cake and although I didn't love the texture I found the apricot and cream cheese topping a winner. I wrote at the time that it would make a fabulous filling for a galette. I planned to make it last year but time ran away with me, so here it is in 2024.

Although it's stone fruit season here, apricots are always in short supply and usually quite expensive. Last week I found some not too expensive apricots in the fruit shop but when I brought them home, I'd not bought anywhere near enough to make the galette. I did however have a bag of apricot quarters in the freezer from last season so I pulled out the bag and set to work. I also found a batch of almond shortcrust pastry, so rather than making a batch of flaky pastry, I went with what I had. Next time I'd make the flaky pastry because the almond shortcrust pastry is a very short pastry making crimping impossible.

So I used pastry that wasn't ideal for the job and year old frozen apricots, so it all could have gone pear shaped, but the end result was absolutely delicious. As I wasn't sure the galette would work out, I only took a few photos.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a large galette which should yield 10-12 slices. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Apricot and cream cheese galette - makes 10-12 slices
Pastry 
¼ cup icing sugar
¼ cup almond meal
175g plain flour
Pinch salt
110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten

Cream Cheese Filling
125g cream cheese at room temperature
1½ tbs caster sugar
1-2 tbs yoghurt or cream
½ tsp vanilla

Apricot Filling
8 large or 16 small apricots, pitted and quartered
1½ tbs caster sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
1 tbs raw sugar

Glaze
1-2 tbs apricot jam, warmed

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add a little of the egg and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Don’t discard any leftover egg as you’ll use this to egg wash the pastry.

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Have a pizza tray handy as you’ll use one on which to bake the galette. Roll the dough out thinly (3-4mm) on a piece of baking paper to make a circle about the size of the pizza tray then place the pastry lined baking paper onto the pizza tray. Centre an 8-9 inch cake tin in the middle of the pastry and press lightly to make an imprint in the pastry. 

Mix the cream cheese with the sugar, yoghurt or cream and vanilla then spread in a thin layer within the template on the pastry. Decoratively arrange the apricot slices over the cream cheese. In a small bowl combine the sugar with the lemon rind. Sprinkle the sugar mix over the fruit then gently fold the pastry over the apricots using the baking paper to help you. Brush the edges of the folded over pastry with the egg wash before sprinkling with the raw sugar.

Place the galette on the bottom shelf of the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then place on the centre rack of the oven and bake for a further 25-35 minutes or until the galette is beautifully golden on top and the crust is crispy. When cooked, take the galette out of the oven and transfer it to a cooling rack. Let the galette cool a little before glazing the fruit with the apricot jam. Serve as is or topped with yoghurt, creme fraiche or ice cream.

This is best served the day it's baked as the pastry softens when stored. The apricot filling was still quite tart, just how I like it, but if that's not for you then add another tablespoon or so of sugar to the apricots.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian