Recipe Index

French | Apple Galette

Posted on November 13, 2012

I made a couple of different versions before choosing this one. This free-form galette was tasty warm or cold. Cold it reminded me of those Hostess Apple Pies that I ate when I was a kid. You could make it faster by buying ready-made pie crust dough.

Yield: about 12 servings

apple galette

Ingredients

DOUGH

2 cups all-purpose flour (about 10 ounces)

7 ounces unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks), chilled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 tablespoon vegetable shortening, chilled (I used another tablespoon of butter instead)

scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

scant 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup ice-cold water, plus more if needed

 

GLAZE

1 cup apricot jam, best quality

2 tablespoons Calvados or cognac

 

FILLING

2 1/4 pounds Golden Delicious or other apples, such as Granny Smith, Rome Beauty, or McIntosh

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

 

GALETTE

sugar for sprinkling on the dough

flour for rolling the dough

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

 

Method

DOUGH

Place the flour, butter pieces, shortening, salt, and sugar in the work bowl of a food processor. Blend in short, second-long bursts, pulsing the machine 8 or 9 times. Uncover and check the consistency - the dough should be crumbly, with the butter broken up into small but still visible pieces, about 1/4 inch or so. If there are large chunks of butter, pulse a few times more.

Add all but a tablespoon of the water through the feed tube of the machine, and pulse 3 or 4 more times, no more than 5 seconds in all. Feel the dough and press some of it in your hand to see whether it clumps together and is evenly moist. If it does not adhere, add another spoonful of water and pulse only another second or two. Don't overmix.

Form a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to rest in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

GLAZE

Put the jam in a saucepan over low heat to melt. Once the jam is melted, sieve the jam into a bowl, then put it back in the saucepan. Reserve the strained apricot bits for the apple filling. Add the Calvados and stir. Set aside.

FILLING

Peel and core the apples. Slice them in quarters or eighths and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Toss apple pieces in a mixing bowl with cinnamon, sugar, and the bits from the strained apricot jam.

GALETTE

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Set the dough on a floured work surface. Roll out the dough into a large oval until the dough is about 3/8 inch thick and about 18 inches long and 15 inches wide. Transfer dough to baking sheet.

Brush the center of the dough with a thin layer of warm glaze, leaving a 2-inch margin unglazed all around. Spill the apple mixture on top of the glazed area and spread into a thick even layer. Lift the edge of the pasty all around and press it over the apples, making pleats in the dough. Dot the top of the apples with the 2 tablespoons of butter and sprinkle sugar on the pastry border.

Place the tart in the oven and bake for an hour, until the dough is nicely browned and the apple chunks are soft.

After removing the tart from the oven, shake it slightly so that the tart doesn't get glued to the baking sheet by the caramelized fruit juices.

Glaze the tart with a thin layer of the glaze using a pastry brush.

 

(Ref. "Free-Form Apple Tart or Galette" recipe, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home.)