Apple Galette

An Apple Galette is apple pie without the pie dish, the crimping, or any of the anxiety. Sliced apples piled onto a round of buttery cornmeal pastry, the edges folded up over the top, baked until it’s deep golden and the apples have caught a little color. It’s meant to look rustic, which means every wobbly fold is working in your favor.

I love a galette for one specific reason: it is impossible to make it look wrong.

A pie has standards. A pie has a fluted edge you’re supposed to crimp evenly, and a lattice, and a whole audience of people who know what a good pie looks like. A galette has none of that. You roll the dough out, you don’t worry about the shape, you pile apples in the middle and fold the edges up however they want to go. The lumpier it is, the more it looks like you meant it.

And this recipe makes 2, which I promise is the best part. Bake one this afternoon and slide the other one into the freezer unbaked. In 3 weeks when somebody turns up unexpectedly, you’ll open the freezer and feel like a genius.

The pastry has cornmeal in it, which is not standard and is very much on purpose. More on that in a minute.

A galette is a free form tart. You make a round of pastry, put the filling in the middle, fold the edges up over the outside of the filling, and bake it flat on a sheet pan. No tart tin, no pie dish, nothing to unmold.

The Italians make the same thing and call it a crostata. In plain English you’ll see it called a rustic apple tart. All 3 are the same idea: pastry, fruit, folded edges, no pan.

The French word means something closer to “flat cake,” which is delightfully unglamorous for something that comes out of the oven looking like it belongs in a magazine.

If yours comes out looking perfectly round and even, you’ve technically made a tart. I’ll allow it.

Most galette dough is just flour and butter. Mine has ½ cup of cornmeal in it, and it’s the reason this one is worth making.

Cornmeal gives the pastry a faint crunch and a slightly sandy, sturdy texture that holds up beautifully under a pile of juicy apples. It’s a little more golden, a little more interesting to bite into, and it does not go soft on you the way plain pastry can.

It also tastes faintly of corn in the best possible way, which against warm apples and cinnamon is a genuinely lovely thing.

• All purpose flour (2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons): The 2 cups build the pastry. The extra 2 tablespoons get tossed with the apples to thicken their juices so they stay where you put them.
• Cornmeal (½ cup): The good bit. Medium grind yellow cornmeal. It brings a faint crunch and keeps the bottom sturdy under all that fruit.
• Salt (1 teaspoon): Pastry without salt tastes like nothing, and you’d be surprised how much difference it makes.
• Sugar (1 teaspoon): Just a whisper in the dough. The apples handle the sweetness.
• Cold unsalted butter (1 cup, cubed): Cold, straight from the fridge. Those little pieces turn to steam in the oven and that’s exactly what gives you flaky layers.
• Ice water (¼ to ½ cup): Add it a splash at a time. The dough tells you when it’s had enough, which is the moment a squeezed handful holds together.
• Apples (4 large, peeled and sliced ¼ inch): Something firm that holds its shape. Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn. A mix of tart and sweet is even better.
• Brown sugar (6 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon): The 6 tablespoons sweeten the apples with a bit of caramel warmth behind them. The last teaspoon gets mixed with cinnamon and scattered over the top.
• Lemon juice (1 tablespoon): Keeps the apples bright and stops them browning while you roll the dough out.
• Cinnamon (¼ teaspoon): Over the apples, with that teaspoon of brown sugar.
• Egg (1, beaten): Brushed on the pastry so it bakes up glossy and deep golden.

Make the pastry: Combine the 2 cups flour, ½ cup cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar in a bowl or a food processor. Add the 1 cup cold cubed butter and work it in until it looks like coarse sand with some bigger butter pieces still visible. Those bigger pieces are your friends, leave them alone.

Bring it together: Add the ice water a little at a time until the dough just holds together. It doesn’t need much from you here. The less you handle it the flakier it turns out, which is a very nice arrangement.

Chill it: Divide into 2 balls, flatten each into a disc, wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour. This is a good moment to do something else entirely.

Get the apples ready: Toss the sliced apples with the 6 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Roll them out: Heat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Roll each disc into a rough 12 inch circle. Rough is the operative word. If it tears, pinch it back together and carry on, because nobody is inspecting the underside of a galette.

Fill and fold: Pile half the apples into the center of each round, leaving a 2 to 3 inch border. Fold that border up and over the outside edge of the apples, letting it pleat wherever it feels like pleating.

Finish the tops: Mix the 1 teaspoon brown sugar with the ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and scatter it over the apples. Brush the pastry with beaten egg.

Bake: 30 to 35 minutes at 400°F, until the crust is deep golden brown and the apples at the edges have taken on a bit of color. Go by how it looks rather than the clock.

Let it settle: Give it 15 minutes before slicing so the juices thicken up. I know.

A galette sits flat on a sheet pan with no dish holding it up, so the crust and the apple juice are in direct contact the whole time. Two things are doing the work here.

The 400°F oven sets the pastry fast, so the bottom firms up before the apples release much of anything. That’s the main event, and it’s why we’re not baking this low and slow.

The cornmeal is the backup. It gives the dough a sturdier, sandier structure that shrugs off moisture better than plain flour does.

Between the two, you get a bottom that stays crisp all the way to the last slice.

• Keep the butter cold. If your kitchen is warm and the dough starts feeling soft, pop it back in the fridge for 10 minutes. Nothing is lost.
• Slice the apples evenly. ¼ inch, roughly. Even slices cook at the same rate, which is really all you’re after.
• Don’t fuss with the shape. Honestly. The charm here is entirely in the imperfection.
• Parchment, always. It makes moving the finished galette off the pan a non event.
• Leftover egg wash? Brush the pleats a second time. They go beautifully shiny.

This is my favorite thing about this recipe and it’s the reason it makes 2.
Assemble the second galette completely, right up to the egg wash, then freeze it solid on its tray. Once it’s firm, wrap it well and it’ll keep for 2 months.
When you want it, unwrap, brush with egg, and bake straight from frozen at 400°F. Give it an extra 10 minutes or so and watch the color.
Future you is going to be so pleased with present you.

• Pears: Swap them in entirely or do half and half. Use firm pears like Bosc so they hold their shape.
• Store bought pastry: Absolutely fine. Use a refrigerated pie crust and roll it out a little thinner. You lose the cornmeal crunch, you gain 90 minutes, and some days that’s the right trade.
• Puff pastry: Works beautifully and goes very dramatic in the oven. Bake at 400°F and keep an eye on it, since puff browns faster.
• Caramel: A drizzle of salted caramel over the warm apples once it’s out. Not subtle. Not trying to be.
• Gluten free: A good cup for cup gluten free flour blend works in place of the all purpose. Keep the cornmeal as is.

Vanilla ice cream, melting into the warm apples, is the whole answer.

Beyond that: softly whipped cream, crème fraîche if you want something with a bit of tang against the sweetness, or a sharp cheddar on the side if you grew up somewhere that does apple pie with cheese. Coffee, obviously.

It keeps at room temperature, loosely covered, for 2 days, and in the fridge for 5. The crust is at its absolute best on day 1, which is rarely a problem in practice.
A baked galette freezes for up to 2 months. Cool it completely, wrap it well, and reheat at 350°F for about 15 minutes to bring the crust back.
To warm a slice, 10 minutes in a 350°F oven. The microwave will heat it through and take the crunch with it.