Apple Galette

Been sick for the past little while, so all I want to do on a day off is rest. As much as I'd rather be hanging out at a coffee shop with a friend on such a gorgeous Fall day, I decided I best stay in (and give a bunch of apples a photoshoot) and not spread my germs around. So, I turned on Songza and cued it to "acoustic version of pop songs", and started preheating my oven. Nothing fancy. Just something rustic.

I found this super easy and simple apple galette recipe. No cinnamon or any other spices to mask the apple flavour. Just a buttery apple tart with a flakey pastry. It went something like this... (well, after just a couple more photos of my beautiful apples and apple chips).

The red ones are called Salish apples. Originated here in beautiful BC. They are both sweet and tart, and perfect for eating. The green and yellow apples are called Spigolds. They are a little more tart compared to the Salish apples, and so I decided to use them for baking... which was part of my intentions for going to the Apple Festival over the weekend.

I started off with measuring one cup of AP flour.

Then, just half a teaspoon of sugar. Followed by a big pinch of salt. 

Then, using a fork, work two cold tablespoon of butter into the flour mixture until I've reached a consistency of cornmeal. 

When that is done, work the rest of the butter (another four tablespoons of cold butter) into the flour mixture into sizes of a pea. 

After adding three tablespoons of ice water, use your hands and knead the dough until it comes together. Do not over knead or else the dough can become tough. 

Form the dough into a disc, and wrap it with plastic wrap before popping it into the fridge. Allow it to sit in the fridge for at least half an hour. 

After the dough has been completely chilled, take it out of the fridge, and roll it out between two sheets of wax paper. The wax paper will prevent it from sticking to the paper or the rolling pin. Give the dough a quarter turn while rolling to let it roll out to a circle. (And then I forgot to take photos while I laid out the thinly sliced apples onto the dough, folding the edges of the dough over). 

This is what it looks like after the assembly.

Then brush the top with melted butter, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar. 

I tried to soothe my throat with a cup of hot lemon honey water while I waited for the galette to bake for 45 minutes at 350C.

It turned out absolutely gorgeous if I can say so myself.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good taste of it. With my congestion and cold symptoms, I haven't been able to smell or taste a thing. So, my family was the lucky ones who did the taste test. It's interesting baking something that you cannot smell or taste. You find yourself asking questions like, "Can you smell it from the oven?", "Are the apples sweet or tart?", "Is the dough sweet or plain?", and "Is it buttery?" because you have no clue. 

The verdict from my taste-testers : It's delicious. You can taste the butter but not too buttery. It isn't too sweet. The crust is more plain than sweet, but it allows the apples to shine (and would go perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream). The crust is super light and flaky. It is really good.