I’m good on savouries.
As in, when I have to think about cooking for myself or others, I’m good on thinking about what we can eat.
Let it be a thick-ass bubbling lasagne (here… ahem…) or roasting a buttery chicken (again… here… ahem) or a bowl of deeply-spiced curry (one more sorry… here… ahem) I never really struggle to think of what I can cook and serve, considering any limitations I have like time or available ingredients. No problem.
Now sweets is where life will always stitch me up.
Not because they’re hard or that I am incapable, but just because the ideas do not naturally form in my head.
The ideas for sweet stuff in my kitchen are rarely formed by my appetite or my desire, they are usually formed from what is hanging about in my kitchen.
For example, I rarely think ‘I need some brownies’ or ‘I would like to bake a cake.’ That’s just not where my mind is. I’d rather eat a bag of crisps.
So how it works for me, is that I’ll see some chocolate in my cupboard, then I’ll think ‘Oh, let’s make some brownies’ or I’ll see some cream cheese in my fridge and then I’ll think ‘Oh, let’s make a cream cheese frosting for a cake.’
There is no chicken vs. egg logic when it comes to sweets in my home. If I see the thing, then I’ll come up with an idea for the thing.
Enter apples.
I bought apples on a whim of ‘I’m going to eat more fruit’ and then the poor bastards sat idle in my fruit bowl as mere colour decoration on my windowsill. For shame shake, when I thought they were only two eye-blinks away from abandoning me for a better life, I decided to give them one.
A new life on top of an almond paste and some flaky pastry.
That’s the life I would want, anyway.
I went through so many motions of how I was going to pull this together – would I do some kind of deep-dish pie or would I caramelise the apples in a skillet, put the pastry on top, put it in the oven and flip it over etc but all my ideas just kept coming back to this super simple, small, beautiful, flaky galette.
I mean, apples here are a mere suggestion. You could go for any fruit – I’ve made a version of this with frozen cherries that I thawed beforehand, which along with the frangipane suggest a Bakewell Tart experience, and I also have a similar (albeit frangipane-less) version with peaches and blueberries here.
Even if you didn’t fancy going the frangipane route with this, you could just put a layer of jam in it’s place (for this a lovely tart apricot jam would be great) but for the sake of combining four ingredients in a bowl, it’s hardly tough labour.
I also do not make my own pastry for this.
Sue me.
You could, and by all means I have a great recipe for pastry in my Maple & Marmalade Sweet Potato Pie recipe available in my Christmas eBook Get Stuffed, but I always keep a pack of shortcrust and puff pastry in my freezer for when I just want to pull together something like this without the extra steps and waiting time.
Serves 6 – 8
For the galette
1 x 375g pre-made roll shortcrust pastry
4 apples
½ tsp cider vinegar
1 tbs icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
Double cream – for brushing
Demerara sugar – for sprinkling
For the frangipane
50g unsalted butter
50g soft brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp almond extract
100g ground almonds
- Unwrap your premade pastry and using your hands, form it into a round ball. This will make it easier to roll into a rough circle shape.
- Take two sheets of baking parchment on a flat countertop and put the pastry ball in between them – this will make the pastry much easier to roll and transfer around. Using a rolling pin, roll the pastry into a rough circle shape (it doesn’t have to be a perfect circle at all) that measures around 32 – 35cm. Don’t worry too much about getting it exactly these measurements, though.
- Transfer the baking parchment and pastry to a baking tray and slip in the fridge while you get on with the rest.
- Halve your apples, remove the core and pips, and then slice the apples into thin strips. We’re not peeling the apples because sod it. No need to be too prescriptive on the thickness of the apples, but bear on the side of thin if you can. Put the slices in a bowl.
- To the bowl of apple sides, add the vinegar, icing sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and cardamom. Sprinkle in a little salt and using a spoon, stir everything together so that the apples are fully coated. Put to one side.
- In another small bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with a little salt until fully combined and a gentle brown colour. Crack in the egg, add the almond extract and using a whisk, mix to combine. Finally, add the ground almonds and fold them in until you have a thick, almond paste. Say hello to frangipane.
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Remove the pastry from the fridge and remove the top layer of baking parchment.
- Spoon the almond paste into the centre of the pastry circle, spreading it gently but thickly outwards from the middle, but leaving a generous gap (roughly 5cm) from the border of the pastry.
- Arrange the apple slices on top of the almond paste, towering it up high if you need to.
- Now with your hands, fold in the edges of the pastry so that they tuck neatly on top of the out edges of the apple slices, leaving the middle tower of apples peeking through the top.
- Using a brush or even your fingers, paint the pastry edges with the double cream and sprinkle with the sugar.
- Bake in the oven for 35 minutes until the pastry is golden and crunchy and the apples are roasted to perfection. The galette with spread slightly and open, exposing some of the frangipane underneath the apples but this is nothing but good news.
- Serve in slices with whatever you want. I go for cream because I use it to paint the pastry anyway, but custard or vanilla ice cream are always good options.
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 