A galette is a free-form tart made without a tin. This shaping gives the tart a rustic feel and is easier to achieve if you haven’t quite mastered your tart lining skills yet. Each galette will be unique depending on how thinly you slice the apples, how large you roll out the pastry, how many folds are in the pastry creating the crust, or if there are any gaps allowing some of the apple caramel to be released. This is not a bake to be precious about; asymmetry and informality are what make this beautiful.
Apple Galette
8
servings40
minutes30
minutesIngredients
- For the Shortcrust Pastry
200g plain flour
100g butter, cold and cubed
1/2 tsp salt
30g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water
- For the Frangipane
50g butter, softened
50g light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
75g ground almonds
25g self-raising flour
- For the apples
4 medium eating apples
50g light brown sugar
30g butter
- For assembly
1 egg
30g demerara sugar
2tbsp apricot jam (optional)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/360ºF fan and place in bake tray to heat.
- Make the shortcrust pastry
- Rub the butter into the flour with the salt and icing sugar using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs and no large lumps of butter remain.
- Add the egg yolks and water to the bowl and mix with a table knife until it begins to clump together. Tip this out onto your surface and lightly work it together to form a fairly smooth dough (don’t wash up the bowl yet as you can use this to make the frangipane).
- Place the dough onto a sheet of baking paper slightly larger than your baking tray and flatten slightly with your hand. Cover with another sheet of baking paper and roll this out into a rough circle about 30cm/12″ in diameter (you do not need to be precise).
- Place the pastry flat in the fridge to chill whilst you prepare the fillings.
- Make the frangipane
- Mix the butter and sugar until well fully combined together. Add in all the remaining frangipane ingredients and stir until all the ingredients are combined.
- Prepare the apples
- Core and quarter the apples, but keep the peel on. Slice each quarter into thin slices.
- Assemble the galette
- Take the pastry out of the fridge and remove the top layer of baking paper. Spread the frangipane over the pastry, leaving a 5cm/2″ border all the way around the pastry.
- Lift up the sliced apple quarters and fan out the slices over the frangipane. Mix and match the directions of where you place the apples and cover the frangipane fully.
- Lift up the edge of the pastry and fold over the edges of the apples all the way around the tart. The pastry will fold over itself; this adds to the informal look. Brush the pastry with some beaten egg and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
- Take the preheated tray from the over and slide the galette on its baking paper onto the tray. The preheated tray will help prevent a soggy bottom! Bake in the oven for 30-35minutes until the pastry is golden all around and the apples are soft.
- To create a shine, gently warm some apricot jam and use a pastry brush to brush a little onto the warm apples to make them shine.
