Desserts · By James
Apple Galette
A galette is our favorite way to make pie with its artistic free-form folded crust and highlighted filling. Our family apple tree, planted when Cam and Joc were very little, has been sculpted carefully over the years to create a candelabra shape with fewer branches to produce abundant larger fruit and help with picking. With apples ready by the end of July, our house is frequently filled with the rich spicy-sweet aromas of this galette in August and September. Gerd has pronounced this the "best pie I've ever had!"
Ingredients
- 6 big apples, or 10–12 from our apple tree (they're smaller) — peel, core and cut into wedges or chunks and submerge in water
- ½ big lemon, juiced
- ½ stick (¼ cup) salted butter
- 6 tbsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ cup rum
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup Demerara sugar (can adjust to suit your sweetness preference)
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 deep dish Tenderflake pie crust (or make your own)
- 1 egg beaten with a tablespoon of cold water
Method
- 1
Preheat oven to 375°F convection (400°F conventional). Take your Tenderflake pie crust out of the freezer and leave it out to thaw (needs at least 20 minutes so that you can easily shape the edges of the crust once your apple filling has been poured in).
- 2
Fill a big bowl with cool water.
- 3
Cut up apples, and as each one is cut, put the pieces into the water bath to keep from browning. Since the slices will float to the top of the water, place a clean paper towel on the water's surface. Once the paper towel is wet, it will push the apples under the surface.
- 4
In a medium pot, mix together the lemon juice, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, rum, salt, and sugar. Heat the mixture through until the butter has melted and sugar is dissolved.
- 5
Mix the cornstarch with a little cool water until dissolved, and then with some of the heated mixture from the pot, creating a warm slurry. Add the slurry mix to your pot mixture and mix quickly, heating until thickened (should be very thick).
- 6
Remove apples from water and add to the thickened pot mixture, reducing the heat to medium. Simmer the apples in the mixture for 10 minutes, and then check thickness (since juice/water from the apples will dilute the thickened sauce). If the sauce needs to be thicker, use more cornstarch dissolved in water/sauce (you want the sauce to be thick, like a very thick syrup consistency, so it will mound nicely in the pie shell, not spreading out, and will create a thick caramel to coat the apples).
- 7
Beat your egg with water until frothy, and use a pastry brush to brush the egg-wash all around the inside of the thawed pie shell (you should leave your pie shell inside its tinfoil pie plate to help with structural integrity). Then, carefully spoon your hot apple filling into the center of the pie shell, taking care that it doesn't spread out too much, otherwise it will be tough to fold in the outside edges of your crust.
- 8
Carefully fold in the outside edges of your crust to enfold the apple filling — your artistic license is at play here. Sometimes the crust will crack as you create your folds, and all you need to do is moisten your fingers and pinch the crust back together. Brush the top edges, and the outside of the crust that is now showing, with egg wash.
- 9
Bake for about 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely (at least an hour) before removing from the tinfoil pie plate (you may need to use a thin sharp knife to work around the edges of the crust since the egg wash will adhere a bit to the pie plate).
A note from James
Drink pairing: any dessert wine noted for its caramel flavors (a late-harvest wine is very nice, balancing acidity with the richer sweetness). A rich caramelly tawny port is also lovely! And, since this apple pie is made with rum, any good aged rum will be perfect (not too costly is Bacardi 8 yr old Reserve; a more costly one, but so worth it, is Zacapa 23 from Guatemala). We first had the Zacapa in Guatemala when Sharon and I were consulting in Antigua in 2022 — Sharon ordered it to go with a dessert, and after a second snifter there was no looking back.
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