Apple Almond Galette

This weekend I should have stayed out of the kitchen entirely!
I made a chocolate cookie bar and a cake that both turned out to be such a disaster that I had to toss them both..such a waste of time and money.

I guess I should have known better. Most of my weekend was taken up with painting the ceiling in my back porch. As if that's not chore enough. It's such a lousy job to paint a ceiling! But I wanted to get you at least one new recipe this weekend..oh well. Hey, maybe I could blame it on the moon, right? It hasn't been this close to earth in, what, about twenty years, or something like that. Did you see it? It was spectacular...but I digress.

So, needing to make something that was, first, created from what I had in the house this morning and second, something pretty much foolproof, I chose a rustic Apple Galette. Not too difficult to make. Pie crust, chopped apples, spices...and the best part? It's so good!

I created this version from about three different recipes. I took a little from here, a little from here and a little from here. And came up with this rustic and delicious galette. I streamlined some of the steps to make it as quick and easy as I could. This is a perfect galette for a weekday dessert and pretty enough for company! Just add a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

First you want to make the crust so it can chill out in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Once the cold butter pieces are added to the flour, just begin working the butter into the flour til you have small pea size pieces.

Then begin adding in the ice cold water, a tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with a fork til it begins to come together. Feel it with your fingers to be sure it has enough water but not too much.

Once it comes together, form it into a disc and wrap in plastic and put into the fridge for 30 minutes, at least.

While the dough is chilling, make the apple filling by mixing the sliced and chopped apples with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.

Roll out the dough to about a 1/4" thickness and spread the warmed apricot jam onto the center going only to within about 2" from the edge.

Then sprinkle the almonds over the jam.

Spread the apple mixture over the almonds, still leaving about 2" aound the edge.

Fold the edges over all around and lightly press the dough into the apples.

Dot the apples with butter and brush a little milk over the edges and sprinkle with raw sugar.
Bake between 50 and 60 minutes.

Apple Almond Galette
Serves 4-6
Crust:

1 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2" pieces

3 1/2 tbsp. ice water

Filling:

4 medium apples, such as Granny Smith or McIntosh

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1/4 cup apricot jam

1 tbsp. milk

raw sugar for sprinkling on dough

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1. Make crust by combining the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.

2. Add in the butter pieces and work the mixture together with your fingers til it resembles pieces the size of small peas.( Some pieces will be larger than others).

3. Add in the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with a fork. Feel the dough with your fingers to be sure it's not too dry. Add in just enough water so it forms a ball. You may not need all the water. It depends on the weather and how much humidity there is).

4. Once you form a ball, place the ball of dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and form into a disc shape. Wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

5. Make the filling while the dough is chilling. Peel, core and slice the apples into thin slices and cut each slice in half.

6. Place the apples in a large bowl and add in the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir to combine well.

7. Preheat the oven to 400.

8. Warm the apricot jam in a small saucepan just til it begins to melt and become a more spreading consistency. Take off heat and set aside.

9. Roll out the chilled dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap to about a 1/4' thickness.

10. Place the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and spread the apricot jam onto the center, keeping within 2" from the edges.

11. Sprinkle the almonds over the jam, then place the apple mixture on top of the almonds and jam.

12. Fold over the dough edges and press into the apples lightly. Brush the edges with a little milk and with sprinkle raw sugar.

13. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or til the crust is a nice golden color and the apples are soft.

14. Lift galette off the baking sheet with the parchment paper and cool on a wire rack.

The galette is best served warm with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Powdered sagar dusted over the top would also be pretty. Enjoy!

Naked Apple Pie

Since yesterday was such a nasty day to go outside, I decided to bake something from what I could find in the house. Everything ingredient that goes into this quick and easy "pie" is pretty much a staple pantry item.

Flipping through one of my vintage cookbooks I came upon this recipe...actually the name caught my interest! I does go together very quickly and can be made in no time in basically one bowl. It's a little on the idea of an apple crisp, in that the "pie" doesn't really have a cake-like consistency but softer, more apple pie-like. And the top gets a nice crackly texture that gives a wonderful little crunch.

It's tricky to get out of the pan so I suggest just giving up on the idea of getting a nice looking slice ( I did try to give you a pretty photo!) and just spoon it out! Plop some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top of the warm pie ( I had neither but I can only imagine!) and you've got yourself a delicious comforting dessert.

Chop up two apples...

Then beat the egg and add in the sugars, vanilla and cinnamon.

Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well, then add in the chopped apples...

And nuts and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured round pan.

And bake for 30 minutes.

It's best served warm.

Naked Apple Pie ( adapted from "Treasured Recipes, Food Editors Favorites")

1 egg

1/2 cup AP flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Pinch salt

1/4 tsp. cinnamon ( I added this, apples need cinnamon!)

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup chopped walnuts ( pecans would also be good)

2 medium apples, peeled and chopped to 1/2" pieces

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Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour lightly a 9" round pan.

1. Beat the egg in a medium bowl, then add in both sugars, vanilla and cinnamon and stir to combine.

2. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt, mixing well to combine.

3. Stir in the chopped apples and nuts.

4. Pour the batter into your pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pide, My Sweet Apple & Raisin Version

If you'd have asked me what a Pide (pronounced "pea-day") was two weeks ago I'd have...not a clue!
But perusing the internet I stumbled upon this "Turkish Pizza" and thought, I need to make this. This sounds different and delicious. So I found a wonderful recipe with excellent photos and make two pides, which my son and I devoured in record time!

Fast forward two weeks (that would be today) and I decided that this might be good as a sweet version. The dough has a slight sweet taste anyhow and I thought, combined with apples and raisins and whatever else you'd like, it would make a great breakfast or dessert. Why not, right? And drizzle a little glaze over the top or just some powdered sugar and you've got something delicious. We love pizza anytime around here!

These were so good! Aren't they beautiful?

Begin by dissolving yeast in really warm milk.

Add in the egg, sugar, salt and oil.

Mix this well, then begin adding in the flour.

Once the flour is all incorporated, switch to a dough hook and let that go for about 5 minutes.

Then dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead 2 minutes.

Place the dough into a large oiled bowl and cover with a towel and let it rise a half to one hour.

While the dough is rising, make the apple raisin mixture in a skillet and let it cool.

Once the dough has risen, divide it in half and roll each half into a sort of oval shape.

Fill each with filling, then roll up the sides into a canoe shape and brush the edges with a beaten egg, then sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake about 25 minutes, or til golden.

Apple Raisin Pide (adapted from here)


Makes 2 pide.

Dough:

1 tbsp. active dry yeast

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees)

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

3 cups AP flour

Topping:

1 tbsp. butter

5 apples, peeled, cored and sliced into small thin pieces.

1/3 cup raisins

2 tbsp. light brown sugar

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1-2 tsp. water

1 tsp. cornstarch ( if apples give off too much juice)

Beaten egg and raw sugar for sprinkling.

Glaze: Optional

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

enough milk to make a thin consistency

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1. Warm milk in small saucepan to 110 degrees. Then pour into the bowl of a standing mixer*.

2. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk and stir to dissolve.

3. In a small, combine the egg, sugar, salt and oil and pour into the yeast mixture and begin mixing with the paddle attachment.

4. Gradually add in the flour and mix well to combine.

5. Switch to a dough hook and mix for about 5 minutes, adding in a little more flour ( 1/8-1/4 cup) if you think it's too sticky.

6. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, til you get a nice smooth ball.

7. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place til doubled, 1/2 to 1 hour.

8. Make the filling while the dough is rising.

9. Once risen, place the dough onto a work surface and divide in half. Roll out each half into an oval shape about 18" long. Place each into a baking sheet lined with foil sprayed or coated lightly with oil.

10. Sprinkle 1 tsp. of cornstarch onto the center of each half of dough and spoon equal amounts of filling onto the dough keeping it within 2" of the edge.

11. Roll over the edges, creating a canoe shape and brush edges with beaten egg, then sprinkle with a little raw sugar.

12. Set them aside while your oven is preheating to 400. Cover the apple area only with foil to allow it to bake better without drying out. Bake about 25 minutes, or til golden.

13. Once cooled, make glaze by combining confectioners' sugar and enough milk to make a thin consistency to spoon over pide.
* Note: If you don't have a standing mixer, place the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix either by hand or with an electric hand held mixer. Knead the dough on a floured work surface by hand for 7 minutes.

Filling: Make while dough is rising:
1. In a large skillet, over medium heat, melt the butter, then place the apple pieces with the raisins into the skillet.

2. Sprinkle the sugars, cinnamon and water over the apple mixture, stir and cook for about 10 minutes, til the apples are getting soft. (If too wet, sprinkle about 1 tsp. of cornstarch over the mixture and stir well.)

3. Take off heat to cool.

Apple Walnut Crumble

There's nothing so warming on a cold winter night as an apple fruit crumble. The smell of the apples baking in the oven is heavenly..it's the ultimate dessert comfort food. Which is why I chose to make this one.
And did you know there is a difference between a crisp and a crumble? Yup, a crisp is fruit topped with a mixture of butter, flour, sugar and nuts and a crumble is the same but it has oatmeal added to the topping. So I guess that means if you don't like oatmeal, you can leave it out and still make this recipe..it's just going to be an apple crisp! This is kind of an apple crumb pie without the bottom crust.

Other than the time it takes to peel the apples, this is an easy dessert to make. You really can't mess it up! Just stir the apples together with some maple syrup and spices, mix the flour and sugar and butter and spread on top and bake. It's a not too sweet, fruity, crunchy dessert, served best slightly warm with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream or ice cream.

Slice and peel the apples.

Place the apples in a baking dish and toss with maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Then scatter the walnuts over top.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, whole wheat flour and sugar, then add the butter pieces and blend in with your fingers.

Then add the oatmeal.

And sprinkle over the apples, and bake.

Apple Walnut Crumble

Serves 8

The best apples to use would be the same as for making a pie, such as, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn or Pippin. Using a combination of several apples is always good.

5 to 6 large apples, peeled and cut into wedges about 1/4" to 1/2" thick

2 oz. maple syrup

1/2 tsp. cinnamon ( I'd increase this amount to 3/4 to 1 tsp.)

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts ( you can use pecans if you don't like walnuts)

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup AP flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

6 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

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Preheat oven to 350.

1. Place apples into baking dish (I used a pyrex 7" x 11" dish) and toss with maple syrup, nutmeg and cinnamon. Scatter nuts on top.

2. Stir sugar, flour and whole wheat flour and mix well.

3. Drop in butter pieces and rub with fingers til mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

4. Mix in oats with fingers.

5. Scatter mixture over apples and bake 45 to 50 minutes. Cover with foil if browning too quickly but uncover toward the end.

Two Jewish Apple Cakes

Since I had to make two apple cakes today, I thought it would be a great chance to bake two different recipes. Do a kind of comparison to see if two recipes came out differently. The ingredients for Jewish Apple cakes are basically the same, using oil, orange juice, 4 eggs and lots of sliced apples..with other things, of course, like sugar and flour. I searched find two that were different enough to, hopefully, make a difference in taste and texture.

The first one I found was this one. This blogger always has great recipes and I have made this cake before. This cake doesn't dissappoint. It's moist and full of flavor and, as with cakes of this kind, tomorrow it will taste even better. The one thing I changed, however, was to slice the apples thinner than her recipes calls for. I just prefer thinner slices.
As you can see from the photo below this cake didn't come as high as the other recipe. It also didn't come out as golden brown but in all fairness, I did use a non stick pan for the other one which accounts for the darker color.

The other recipe is called a Philadelphia Style Apple Cake ( no prejudice here..honest!). It used a little more flour and orange juice and some brown sugar, rather than all white sugar. And the method for making this cake was a little bit easier. I also liked the suggestion of sprinkling some sugar onto the pan after greasing and before flouring.
So for looks, this one got my vote, but for taste, I have to say they were both great.

Grease the pan, then sprinkle with some sugar, then flour.

The Philadelphia Cake called for about 3 apples but I used 5 apples to keep both recipes using the same amount.

The most time consuming part was peeling and slicing the apples.

Once they're all sliced, put them into a large bowl and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over them and set them aside while you make the rest of the recipe.

Once the batter's made pour some of it into the prepared pan, then place some of the apple slices over top.

Then layer more batter, then apples.

Pour the remaining batter over the apples.

Then bake for about an hour.

Philadelphia Style Apple Cake ( or Jewish Apple Cake)



6 cups peeled and thinly sliced Granny Smith apples ( about 3 apples but I used 5)

5 tbsp. sugar

4 tsp. cinnamon

3 cups AP flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil ( I used canola)

1/2 cup orange juice

2 1/2 tsp. vanilla

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Grease ( don't use spray) , sugar and flour a tube bundt pan.

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Mix apple slices with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. Beat eggs with granulated sugar and brown sugar.

4. Add oil, orange juice and vanilla to the egg mixture and beat well.

5. Gradually blend in flour mixture and mix til well blended, about one minute.

6. Drain the liquid off apples.

7. Pour about one third of the batter into the prepared pan, then a layer of apples. Repeat with batter and apples, ending with batter.
8. Bake for approx. one hour or til a knife inserted into cake comes out clean.

9. Let the cake cool for at least one hour before removing from pan.

Note: Let it cool completely before slicing. This cake is better the day after baking.

Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie Cake

This very long weekend of cold rainy weather gave me some extra time to try a few more recipes from Dorie Greenspan's Cookbook, "Baking From My Home To Yours".
My one big objection to this book is the lack of photos. I get very frustrated with a cookbook that doesn't show photos of the recipe or dish to be made. I did check other bloggers who had made this Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie Cake before so I had a slight idea of how it would look, once baked.
I decided to halve the recipe, since, like the previous apple pie bars recipe I made, it would have been too much for just the 2 of us.
I hope you will pardon my lousy photos. I didn't even get a good shot of the finished, cut piece on the plate so I'm showing you the finished pie cake in the pan with a piece cut out! At least this way you can see what the inside looks like!
A few notes on the baking.
I set the timer for an hour but the top started browning and then almost looking like it was going to burn so I covered the edges in foil and let it go a bit longer but with almost 15 minutes left on the clock I decided to take it out of the oven, making the total bake time only about 45 minutes.
In her book, Dorie says to bake it 65 to 80 minutes. Yikes... it would have been totally burnt by then!
Because I took it out ahead of time, the apples didn't get really nice and soft so that didn't make me happy!
Still, it tasted very good. The crust was the best part! It had a wonderful flavor, a bit like a sugar cookie taste.
Maybe I chose the wrong type dish? I had to find a dish that was half the size called for in the recipe so the only one I could find was a small deep dish pyrex. Perhaps it was too deep?
Would I make this recipe again. Probably not. I , personally, like more of an apple crumb pie, but then I like a bit of crunch to offset the soft apple and crust.

Adding the lemon juice to the dough. It didn't really curdle like she said it might.

I did add a little bit more flour as Dorie says it might need. The dough came together very nicely.

The dough was actually very easy to work with. I just sprinkled a tiny bit of flour and patted it into a rectangle and wrapped it in plastic wrap and chilled it.

I cut up 5 apples but only used about 4. I used Golden Delicious and Gala. The recipe says to cut the apples 1/4 " thick, which I did but I think I could have sliced them a little bit thinner.

Place the dough into the pan and trim the excess along the edges to about 1/2".

You can see how much extra I had left of apples and raisins.

Ready for the oven. Sprinkled the top with sugar and cut slits into the top. Sure looks pretty!!

In the book Dorie says to cook til the top is a nice golden brown and the juices from the apples are bubbling up through the slits but this never happened.

I do think if I ever decide to make it again I will use a pie pan that isn't so deep.