Country French Apple Galette

As many of you may have noticed by now, I have a peculiar obsession with French Country cooking. In October of 2007, Stephen and I traveled to the Loire Valley in France and had the opportunity to experience the inspiration behind this glorious cuisine. France's Loire Valley contains some of the richest farmland in the world, yielding what I consider to be the best possible ingredients a cook could desire. Tart apples, sweet butter, pungent soft cheeses, white wines bursting with minerality and ripe fruit and the freshest seafood - you will find it all there. A cook cannot help but be inspired.



While the ingredients are the best, the cuisine of this region is far from fancy. The dishes have a really casual feel and are prepared in a simple manner to highlight the natural beauty of the ingredients. This apple galette was made in the Country French style. A round of butter pastry (the same used for more complicated pie crusts) is rolled out in a circle and filled with sweetened apple slices and dotted with butter. The pastry is folded up around the apples to hold in the juices released by the heat of the oven. Imperfection is not only acceptable, but desirable.



The recipe is a slightly modified version of one found in Williams Sonoma's Cookbook, Pie and Tart:


Harvest Apple Galette

1 rolled out pie crust round
4 large, tart apples, peeled, halved lengthwise and cored (Granny Smiths work well)
2 T cold unsalted butter
3 T sugar
½ t ground cinnamon
¼ t ground allspice

Place the round of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with 1 T sugar and dot with pieces of 1 T butter.

Thinly slice each apple crosswise, keeping halves together. Flatten the apple slices slightly, and lay them cored side down in the middle of the pie dough round. Repeat with remaining apple slices, arranging them around the center apple half. Leave a border of about 1.5 inches uncovered. Sprinkle the apple slices with 2 T sugar and the spices. Pleat the edges of the dough around the apple slices. Dot the apple slices with small pieces of the remaining 1 T butter.

Cut 3 strips of aluminum foil, about 2 inches wide. Use these strips of foil to cover the edges of the dough if they brown excessively during baking.

Refrigerate the galette until the dough is firm, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 F.

Bake the galette for 15 minutes, and reduce oven temperature to 375 F. Continue baking until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender, 30 to 40 minutes longer. Be sure to cover the edges of the crust with the strips of foil to avoid over-browning.

Cool the galette on a wire rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Yields: 1 9-inch galette (about 6 servings)