Puff Pastry Apple Galette

What is a galette

A galette is a rustic, free-form fruit tart or pie that’s made of a thin layer of fruit on top of a buttery, crisp crust. 

Unlike a traditional pie where the edges are perfectly crimped, or a tart where you get straight, stiff sides from the tart pan, galette dough is generally just laid out then folded over the fruit.

Bottomline: it’s your favourite fruit pie with less effort. Like this puff pastry apple galette.

(Walking apple pie is another recipe you can try if you want apple pie without all the work. Want to get all fancy? Try making tarte tatin, a classic of French cuisine.)

In addition to being simple and straightforward and essentially effortless, you’ll love making it because:

• It uses the season’s best apples. They’re available all year but if you ever go apple picking one October or November day and wondering what to make with the 10 baskets of apples you have, this is it.
• Buttery puff pastry. This recipe also uses the ultra-convenient, always perfectly flaky and buttery, puff pastry. Just thaw, roll and bake.
• Stress-free baking. A galette doesn’t have to be perfect. The whole point of it is to look imperfect and rustic so don’t worry if yours is misshapen or juices came out the sides. Just have fun!
• Delicious. It may be easy to make, and there’s no complicated pie crust, but it doesn’t scrimp on flavor. It smells, tastes and looks like a perfect fall day.
• It’s also customizable. Not in the mood for apples today? Want to make individual-sized galettes? Try making mini cherry galettes or pick any fruit you like. You can even make a savoury puff pastry galette.
• Apple galette puff pastry is perfect with vanilla ice cream. That’s certainly more than enough reason for me! You can also drizzle it with salted caramel sauce.

What you’ll need

I used to make pie dough from scratch whenever I made apple galette but I figured it defeated the purpose of this being an easy, stress-free recipe. 

So I tweaked the recipe and started using frozen puff pastry. Never looked back.

To make this apple galette recipe with puff pastry, all you’ll need are pantry staples. Some things to note:

• Frozen puff pastry  — when using ready-made puff pastry, spring for all-butter puff pastry whenever possible. You can really tell the difference.
• Baking apples — I always use Granny Smith apples, see FAQs below.

No special tools are required, though a vegetable peeler and a mandoline will make it so much easier to prep the apples. 

(Got extra apples? Make Instant Pot apple butter!)

Once your puff pastry is properly thawed, gently place and roll it out onto your baking sheet and place apple slices in the middle, leaving about an inch border all around. 

Galettes are not supposed to look perfect, but you can bake them perfectly every time.

• Thaw your puff pastry properly. More on this below.
• Slice your apples as evenly sized as possible. They don’t have to be super thin but being roughly the same size allows them to bake at the same rate.
• Don’t skimp on the apples. They will soften and shrink as they bake so you want 2-3 layers of apple slices per galette.
• Don’t skip chilling time. Chilling the galettes before baking allows the butter to re-solidify, resulting to puffier, flakier pastries.

Puff pastry is one of the things I always buy in-store. It’s very complicated to make from scratch (at least for me) and since I can get high quality frozen puff pastry at the store, that’s what I always do. 

And it really is a wonderful ingredient to work with. Some things to keep in mind:

• Thaw properly. It usually says how and for how long on the package.
• Never warm. Puff pastry should never be warm to the touch or even room temperature. It should be pliable but still cool. 
• Timing. On the other hand, don’t use puff pastry too soon, example: when it’s still frozen, or it will break. Timing and patience are key.