pie dough

Fleur de Sel Caramel and Cream Cheese Apple Galette

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We are well into November, which means it’s time to start thinking about your Thanksgiving meal.  Not Christmas yet though, despite the fact that almost every retail store I’ve been to has their trees up already.  Straight from Halloween to Christmas!  It’s crazy.  But Thanksgiving is just a little over 2 weeks away so let’s talk food.  I’ll share a few recipes over the next couple of weeks.

FLEUR DE SEL CARAMEL AND CREAM CHEESE APPLE GALETTE | Hottie Biscotti

The more I cook the more recipes I have stored up either here on the blog or in a ridiculous collection of books and binders that I can turn to.  I come from a family of 4 girls, all of whom enjoy cooking.  So when it comes to holiday meals we all start searching for things we’d like to make.  We almost never make the same thing twice, except for my Grandma June’s dressing which is always on the table, as is her apple pie.  But we like to branch out and try other ways to prepare vegetables, desserts and sides.

This simple apple galette would be a lovely Thanksgiving dessert, but could easily make its way to your table on a weeknight.  It’s simple to prepare and doesn’t require many ingredients or much time.  You can use a scratch pie crust or a store bought one to make it even simpler.

applegalette11 applegalette14 applegalette13 FLEUR DE SEL CARAMEL AND CREAM CHEESE APPLE GALETTE | Hottie Biscotti

This caramel sauce takes this simple dessert to a special place and I am so thankful to my good friend who introduced me to it!  Go grab yourself a few jars.  It’s also terrific as a dip for raw apples slices, so whatever you have leftover from this galette you can use as an afternoon snack.  You’re welcome.

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This is different enough from a pie that you could get away with having a traditional apple pie and this galette on the same dessert table.  The thin-ness of this galette makes me feel a little better about eating dessert, even though it’s probably not too much better for me.  The cream cheese is subtle and pairs well with the apples and caramel, but you could easily leave it out if you don’t have any around or if you just don’t care for it.

FLEUR DE SEL CARAMEL AND CREAM CHEESE APPLE GALETTE | Hottie Biscotti FLEUR DE SEL CARAMEL AND CREAM CHEESE APPLE GALETTE | Hottie Biscotti FLEUR DE SEL CARAMEL AND CREAM CHEESE APPLE GALETTE | Hottie Biscotti FLEUR DE SEL CARAMEL AND CREAM CHEESE APPLE GALETTE | Hottie Biscotti

I’m really looking forward to Thanksgiving.  I really enjoy this holiday and this year we get to spend it at the lake with my husband’s family, which will be lovely as always.  What are you planning to make for Thanksgiving?  Do you have any recipes you make every year?

Fleur de Sel Caramel and Cream Cheese Apple Galette

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

  • 1 round pie dough
  • 2 Granny Smith apples
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • salt
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 3-4 tablespoons Fleur de sel Caramel Sauce
  • 1 egg

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Peel and core apples, then slice thinly.
  3. Mix apples with 2 tablespoons of sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt.  Set aside.
  4. Beat cream cheese with 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar until smooth.  Set aside.
  5. Roll dough out on a large piece of parchment paper into a 12 inch circle.
  6. Spread cream cheese onto dough leaving a 1 1/2 inch border.
  7. Arrange apples in 2 concentric circles, overlapping as needed, on top of the cream cheese.
  8. Warm up 4 tablespoons of the caramel sauce in a small bowl in the microwave.  Drizzle 1 1/2 tablespoons of the caramel sauce evenly over the apples.
  9. Fold the dough over the edges of the apples.
  10. Whisk egg in a small bowl with 1 teaspoon of water, then brush onto the dough.
  11. Transfer parchment to a large baking sheet and bake for 25-35 minutes, until crust is golden and apples are tender.
  12. Remove from the oven and drizzle with the rest of the caramel sauce.
  13. Serve warm or room temperature with ice cream or whipped cream and more caramel sauce.

 

Buttery Pie Crust (Pate Brisee) and Ham & Cheese Quiche

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This is one of the first things you will see as you start preparing this pie crust.  2 whole sticks of pure and lovely butter.  So you know it’s gotta be good.

There is nothing at all wrong with buying your pie dough.  I do it all the time.  Those twin packs of Pillsbury pie dough are convenient and really tasty.  However, if you can find the time to make pie dough from scratch, it is well worth it.  The great thing about this particular recipe is that it makes enough for a double crusted pie so you can use one now and keep the other in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Since I was going to make quiche with this pie crust, I had to blind bake it.  I hate blind baking.  I always feel like my efforts to make an attractive edge are futile.  After putting the dough in the pie plate you have to put in and take out the foil and pie weights which inevitably causes some part of the edge to get bumped.  I am not good at this.  This time I also had a little trouble with the crust sliding down from the top of the plate during baking, so I had to squish the still pliable dough back up to the top of the plate.  After searching a little on this issue I learned that a quick rest in the freezer would have kept it from losing as much of its shape during the blind baking.  An obvious thing that I probably should have known to do, but didn’t.   Even though this crust was far from the prettiest it was delicious.

Thanks to the generous amount of butter, this crust is absolutely delicious.  You just cannot beat the flavor of butter.  The crust is also slightly flaky and the layers just melt in your mouth.  A mix of butter and shortening is supposed to yield a more flaky dough, so I will have to try that sometime.  The dough comes together quickly in a food processor, but you can also use a pastry blender.  It rolls out easily, but do make sure you dust your surface and rolling pin with flour as you’re rolling.  After a few rolls make sure you pick up your dough and rotate it 90 degrees.  I have the tendency to roll with more pressure when the pin is closest to me and less pressure when it is far away.  So rotating the dough not only helps with sticking, but also with keeping your dough an even thickness.

This recipe is from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.

Pâte Brisée

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1/4 cup ice water, more if needed
Directions
  1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt; pulse to combine.  Add the butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds. (Or use a pastry blender to combine ingredients.)
  2. With machine running, add ice water through the feed tube in a slow, steady stream, just until the dough comes together without being wet or sticky.  Do not process more than 30 seconds.  Dough should hold together and not be crumbly.  Add 1 tablespoon more of water if it is crumbly.
  3. Turn dough out onto a clean work surface.  Divide in half, place each on a piece of plastic wrap.  Shape into flattened disks and wrap in the plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  4. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick.  Place your pie plate on the dough and make sure you have about 2 inches excess all around.  Roll dough onto pin, then unroll into pie plate.
I searched for a healthier quiche just to kind of balance things out since I was using an all butter pie crust!  I found some that used skim milk, but we all know how well those things usually turn out.  Bad.  That’s how.  So I kept looking and found some that used non-fat evaporated milk.  So I decided to combine some 2% milk with some evaporated milk.  I also noticed many recipes that used whole eggs and egg whites.  So I used 3 whole and 3 whites.  The resulting texture was different than the usual whole egg and all milk quiches I have made, but it wasn’t weird.  The flavor was quite good and we finished the quiche off in 3 days.  Feel free to use any meat you have, any cheese, and any vegetables.  Quiche is good for emptying the fridge.  Pardon this bad picture!  Still documenting food with the iPhone and it is getting old.  I miss my camera.

Ham & Cheese Quiche

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 egg whites
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup non-fat evaporated milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 cup grated white cheddar
  • 1/2 cup chopped ham
  • 1/4 cup chopped scallions
  • 1 pie crust

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Blind bake the pie crust for 7 minutes, then remove the pie weights, (rice, beans, etc.) and bake for an additional 4 minutes.
  3. Whisk eggs, whites, milk, salt and pepper until foamy.
  4. Stir in ham, cheese and scallions.
  5. Pour filling into pie crust and bake for 35-45 minutes.  Center can be slightly jiggly, but bake for the longer time if you want a firmer texture.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.