Rustic Apple Galette - A Guest Post By Sweatha Pai

Experiments, emotions and experiences with food - Sweatha Pai has it all for you! Her yummilicious blog -  Tasty Curry Leaf. An extremely avid baker with a vast repertoire of mouth-watering egg-less and vegan bakes, desserts, yeasted bakes and a whole lot of Middle eastern cuisine, her space tempts you to try them all! Did I just stress Middle Eastern? Wait! There is Turkish, Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican, Italian, English and American to name a few cuisines she dabbles in. Well! That leaves very little of global cuisine she hasn't tried yet! Mind you, all of these are egg-less and some even vegan!

I bet her family just doesn't know what boring and mundane means when it comes to food! You bet I also don't want her to know what I cook for my family everyday - yaawn!! So the next time you feel adventurous and want to try something new, you know where to head to!! I have drooled over her Herbed Sour Cream Biscuits,  Oatmeal Crisps, and Caramelized Onion , Rosemary And Tomato Flatizza .. these have to be tried!

Do read the err...personal mail she has written to her blog here
 
Ooops! Sweatha is supposed to do the talking here! Here she is tempting you with a delicious cinnamon laced Apple Galette, made all the more tempting as its easier too! Thanks Sweatha for your very generous and kind words for me, not sure if I deserve all that, but you sure made my day!

What do you cook for a baking and dessert queen? When you see that she is an expert baker and dessert specialist and has conquered some of the excellent cakes and bakes in her blog, what would you cook/bake for her when she has invited you for a guest post?

Actually I was ready when Suma invited me for a guest post. The first idea was obviously a cake. A simple eggless chocolate cake for Cakes n More. Then  as usual I had the doubt.A simple chocolate cake for a person who has conquered exotic breads and bakes!. Of course it will be good, but is it enough? Matt Preston boomed in my head, "Is this dish enough to take you to next level?" "Is this dish worthy of Cakes n More standards?" Racking my brains I decided a galette is my safest bet. Its rustic,can be made slightly roughly without the decorative rules that come with a pie and its perfect for the dessert queen and also perfect for me on a chilly night.And as usual my amateurish clicking skills can be forgiven as well.

A galette is a general term in French cuisine covering most thick round flat breads or free form crusty cakes.It is definitely similar to Italian crostata and can be called haphazard pies.These days of course the term refers to rustic pies with a rich and flaky crust stuffed with fruit or veggies,the common and popular one being apple galette. Basically, you are making a rustic or free style pie using buttery pie crust.I have also baked an apple galette for dear Suma with little variations here and there. You do not need to know rocket science to make a galette, except of course little of pie science.

Ingredients:
Crust:

All Purpose Flour: 1 cup
Salt: 1/8 tsp
Cold Cubed Unsalted Butter: 1/3 cup or round off 6 tbsp (5 tbsp and 2 tsp)
Ice Cold Water: 2 to 3 tbsp

Filling: 
Apples: peeled,cored and thinly sliced : around 1.5 cup or 2 apples
Brown Sugar: 2 tbsp divided
Lemon Juice: 1/2 tsp or a big squeeze of lemon for tossing with the apple slices
Cinnamon: 1/4 -1/2 tsp as per taste
Powdered Ginger: 1/8 -1/4 tsp as per taste
Fresh grated nutmeg: a pinch or more as per taste
Almond powdered: about 1 tbsp (optional)


Preparation:
For the crust, mix together flour and salt and cut in cubed butter with a fork and mix in till it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add in 1 tbsp water at a time and mix in till the flour is moistened.

Here the key thing is you should not overwork the pastry. Try mixing the butter gently with a fork or just your finger tips and add just are minimum of water as needed to moisten the flour. There should be water to support butter as a binder but just enough.Also make sure the butter and water are ice cold. This is needed to prevent the development of gluten in the flour. Gluten will make the crust tough. Overworking the dough or warm ingredients will produce a tougher or crusty crust. We want a soft, slightly crumbly,flaky and buttery pie crust.

Once the dough is formed wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it. It can stay in the refrigerator for maximum 3 days. In case you are not baking the tart/galette/pie immediately, it can be frozen for upto 2 months.

While the dough is resting, prepare the filling. Slice the peeled and cored apples, toss it with lemon juice to prevent darkening and then mix it in with 1 tbsp of brown sugar, powdered spices and almond meal or flour or powdered. 

Almond meal is completely optional. I just added it to absorb extra juices if any overflow during baking. You can use flour,cornstarch arrowroot powder etc instead or completely leave it out. Let it sit for sometime while the flavours are mingling.Always do the taste test and adjust the sugar and spices to get what you like.

Take out the dough, divide it into two balls, refrigerate one while working on the other.

On a lightly floured surface or  plastic sheets, roll out the dough gently into a circle of about 1/4 inch thickness. Once this is done, transfer it to the lined baking sheet and start layering on the apple slices in whatever way you like leaving an inch or half  around the edges free.You can go for nice designs while layering like arranging in overlapping concentric circles or whatever way you prefer.

Once done, fold the edges inward on top the fruit. Sprinkle little brown sugar on top and dot it with additional butter if you like. Once this is done you can brush the folded edges with milk/melted butter and sprinkle some more brown sugar on top. 

Repeat the steps with the second dough ball as well or freeze it for later use. One galette serves 2 or just 1 if you are a dessert person!You can even go for smaller galettes which is what I did with my other dough ball and got two bite sized galettes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 F or 180C for about 30-35 minutes or more until the pastry is golden brown, the fruit  bubbles and a warm aroma of comforting baking spreads all over. The mini ones took barely 25 minutes to finish. So just keep an eye on from the 24th minute onwards.

Take out cool completely or till you can control yourself. Then attack.

Oops I forgot to tell you about the sauce. Its a simple custard sauce using ready made custard powder. Something quickly put together when you are in a hurry to consume the galette. I just followed the instructions that came with the packet and within minutes it was ready. But of course the barring one, the galettes were over within minutes my daughter set her eyes on them. She did not even need the sauce. 

Galettes can also be served along with the usual accompaniments of ice cream,whipped cream or even dessert sauces or simply glaze with jam and serve. 

"Will this dish take me to a higher level? " Matt booms. "Yes of course, I definitely believe so Matt if you excuse the use of  custard powder. Now its upto you Suma."