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Galettes are easy to love with their flaky, rustic pastry and sweet or savoury fillings. Apple Galette with Almond Pastry comes together easily and tastes just as delicious as apple pie. It’s the perfect ending to your entertaining occasions, but particularly Thanksgiving when apple desserts are sought after.
What is a galette anyway? A galette is a free form tart that can be made with sweet fillings such as berries and apples or savoury fillings like chicken and mushrooms. They’re unique in the way the pastry is shaped around the filling into a rustic form without the use of a pie dish. This eliminates the need for a top crust and fussy crimping, yet the filling stays snuggly in place.
What makes a good galette? Like a traditional pie, a lot depends on the pastry and this means using cold butter that is cut into the dry ingredients until crumbly and the butter bits are no bigger than the size of a pea. It’s also very, very important to use ice-cold water. This helps keep everything just a little bit colder, especially the butter which tends to soften as you work with it. Keeping everything as cold as possible helps the butter hold its size, which will create flaky layers when it melts during baking. There’s no need to overfill a galette, it’s meant to be flatter than a pie. So resist the urge to pile your filling sky high because the filling needs to cook at the same time as the pastry.
Author:Â Compelled to Cook
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into small chunks
- 1/4 cup ice cold water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 4 medium Granny Smith apples
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- each juice of half a lemon
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
- 2-3 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into small chunks
- as needed course sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp milk
- In a large bowl combine flour, almond flour, sugar and salt. Cut butter cubes into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or a knife until the flour is crumbly with small bits of butter.
- Drizzle water and vinegar over flour mixture and toss with a fork until dough just starts to come together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and work gently to bring everything together and the dough has smoothed out.
- Roll dough into a ball and then flatten into an approximate 6" disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- Peel and core apples and then cut them into thin slices. Drizzle slices with the lemon juice as you slice to prevent oxidization.
- To the apples add the sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Toss to combine.
- In a small bowl whisk together egg and milk.
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- On a lightly floured surface roll dough to an approximate 13" circle adding a sprinkle of flour to the top and bottom as you go to prevent it sticking.
- Trim dough to a neat 12" circle by using a plate or pie plate as a guide (see note). Roll dough onto your rolling pin and transfer to a large parchment-lined baking tray.
- Pile filling in the centre and spread out towards the edge leaving a 1 1/2" border of plain dough.
- Fold the dough edge up and over the filling, crimping slightly as you go around. Sprinkle the apples with dots of butter. Brush the pastry with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes until the pastry is golden and apples are tender.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing into wedges and serving with ice cream.
-The pastry does not have to be a perfect circle. If you'd like a nice rustic look you can leave it as you roll it as long as it is an approximate 12"-13" in diameter and 1/8" thick.
-If you like a neater look you can also arrange the apple slices in a concentric circle. I'm partial to piling the apples in as they fall.