Beautiful autumn evenings through last week got me in the mood to make some apple galettes. I’ve always been a pie person – crumbly crust sitting in pretty while pie dishes with the traditional lattice that adds its quintessential charm. This time I decided to make galettes instead and realised how much fun they were and they are can be made so in a jiffy – no trimmings, no fancy patterns.
To add to the fun of making galettes, and to give me reason to make more of these, I did a little experiment of my own to test a few things.
Test 1:
One of the things I’ve be curious about is how the regular Indian Kashmiri apples would taste when baked as compared to the widely used Granny Smiths (not so easily available, double the price of regular apples).
Test 2:
The second thing I wanted to test was the difference an egg yolk would make when added to the dough. I just don’t feel too nice about breaking an egg and throwing the white down the sink. There are times I push it back into the fridge, promising myself that I’ll use it up soon enough, but that hasn’t happened yet.
So I made the different galettes. The first one with egg yolk in the dough and Granny Smiths; second with the yolk and the Kashmiri apples; and finally the third with the Granny Smiths, but without the egg yolk in the dough.
Result:
1. Granny Smith won hands down. Definitely don’t mind paying double the price for some very delicious pie filling with a nice bite to it. The Kashmiri apples tend to get mushy sooner, so maybe if I am stuck with using these I’d have to pull them out of the oven sooner.
2. The crust with the egg yolk was a thousand times better than the one without. Beatifully golden with a nice crumbly texture. I have never made a crust better than this one. This is so good, I am happy eating it all by itself too.
Apple Galettes
(Makes 2 medium sized galettes)
Galette Pastry:
200g/1 ½ cups flour
2-3 tbsp powdered sugar
100g/ 1 stick cold butter, cut into cubes
1 egg yolk, beaten
Ice water to combine the dough
Apple filling:
2 Granny Smith Apples, chopped into small chunks
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp vanilla sugar
A handful raisins
A handful of pecans, chopped coarsely
Mix the sugar and flour together. Blend in the cold butter and the egg yolk with a pastry cutter. It’s faster when you use your hands, but be sure to do this quickly, we don’t want the butter to melt away or we lose the flaky texture. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, add the ice cold water, a spoonful at a time, until the dough is just combined. Divide it into two and let it rest in the freezer for 10 minutes.
For the filling: Mix all the ingredients mentioned in a bowl.
Assembling:
Roll out the pastry dough into a circle of about 1/3 cm or 1/8 inch thickness. Make sure the dough is well floured so that it doesn’t stick. Place half the filling mixture in the centre of the rolled dough. Fold the edges of the dough over the apple mixture, sealing all the crevices. Transfer on to a baking sheet. Brush the galettes with egg wash and bake in a preheated oven (180ºC or 350ºF)
Now it’s time to eat! Enjoy the galette with vanilla icecream or whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce. I took the easy way out by using Smuckers. :P