Pink Pearl Apple Galette

Fall officially arrived a week ago but San Diego must have missed the memo because it’s still 90-100 degrees F with unbearable humidity. For those people who don’t believe in global warming, I hope you’re taking note! Having lived in northern California and Washington, I miss the fall foliage bursting with golds, reds, and browns and the accompanied sweater weather. For us San Dieagans, it still feels like summer.

Culinary wise, my favorite part of fall is the arrival of apples. They go into galettes, pies, tarts, bread, salad, and a lot of soup. Last year I discovered a beautiful apple with pink flesh called pink pearl apple through Instagram and vowed I would hunt some down for my fall baking endeavors. They have a quick season from late August to mid September so you have to be vigilant. 

As luck would have it, Specialty Produce had them in stock. I jumped for joy and drove like mad woman to Specialty Produce to snatch some before the local restaurants get to them. I stocked up on a few pounds and immediately threw together a simple apple galette as soon as I got home. 

The dough was a little thin so the pleating didn’t work out as nicely as I had hoped for. But a galette is meant to be rustic and forgiving anyway so it wasn’t a huge problem. The apple slices retained their beautiful color after baking and had a wonderful tart-sweetness. My hubby and I devoured the entire thing topped with vanilla ice cream. It was my first time baking with Pink Pearl apples and definitely won’t be my last! I’m even more smitten with them now having seen how beautiful they are and wonderful they taste. If you can’t find Pink Pearl apples, you can substitute another baking apple like Jonagolds, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Cortlands, or Melrose. Stay tuned for another Pink Pearl apple dessert! 

Pink Pearl Apple Galette

1 lb of pink pearl apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tablespoon Calvados
¼ cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
2 tbsps of hazelnut meal
2 tablespoon of sanding sugar or turbinado sugar

For the pastry dough
¾ cup of spelt flour (if you don’t have spelt flour, you can replace with another wheat flour or all purpose flour)
½ cup of hazelnut meal
6 tbsps of butter, chopped into cubes
2 tablespoon of icing sugar
pinch of salt
3-4 tbsps of ice-cold water

For the glaze
1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

1. Sift the flours together. To make the pastry crust, place the flours, sugar, salt, and butter in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

2. While the mixture is being processed, gradually add cold water until the dough comes together.

3. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead gently.

4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 60 minutes before rolling.

5. In a bowl, add apple slices, calvados, sugar, and cornstarch. Toss with your hands to combine. Set aside.

6. Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a circle of about 12 inches wide and ¼ inch thick. Move the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

7. Sprinkle 2 tbsps of hazelnut meal in the center of the dough, leaving a 1 inch border.

8. Arrange the apple slices in the center of the dough leaving a one and a half inch border uncovered. Fold the dough edges over the apple, pleating it loosely and leaving the galette open in the center. Patch the dough together if it breaks. Pour the juice from the apple mixture into the galette.

9. For the glaze, beat the egg lightly with a fork. Brush the dough with the egg and sprinkle the sanding sugar over the whole galette. Refrigerate the galette for 30 minutes.

10. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

11. Remove the galette from the fridge and bake for 40-50 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and crusted with sugar, and apple slices softened. Remove the galette from the oven and let it cool on the baking sheet.

12. When ready to serve, cut the galette into eight pieces, transfer them to a serving plate, and top with vanilla ice cream.