Recipe: Apple Galette
For the Blitz Puff Pastry:
Ingredients:
- 10 oz. all purpose flour
- 2 t. salt
- pinch sugar
- 6 oz. cold butter
- 2/3 to 3/4 C. ice cold water
- 2 TB. crème fraiche or heavy cream
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar.
- Cut the cold butter into small pieces and work them into the flour slightly,
- mashing some butter with your fingers and still leaving obvious chunks of butter in the mix.
- Add the crème fraiche or cream in the center and add 2/3 C. ice water.
- Cut into the flour mixture gently, without working the dough. It will still look quite raggy, but if it really seems dry, add the rest of the water just to dampen.
- Scoop dough into a plastic bag or wrap in plastic and chill for 1-2 hours.
- The flour will continue to soak up the water as it is chilling.
- Turn dough out on a flour dusted counter top. Roll out quickly with rolling pin to approximately a 6"X12" rectangle.
- Fold dough over on itself in thirds as if folding a letter.
- Fold over in half, wrap and chill for another hour.
- Roll out again to the rectangle and fold over in thirds as before.
- Chill for another 1 hour or more.
- Cut dough in half to roll out each to 1/4" thick.
- Cut out 4" rounds. Prick each galette with a fork a few times.
- Set on parchment lined sheet pan upside down.
- Chill for 10-15 minutes while preparing the apple slices.
Ingredients:
- 4 ea. apples (try Pink Pearl if you can get them at the first of the season, otherwise Granny Smith or Pippins or other varietal)
- 1 ea. egg
- 1 tsp. water
- 1/4 C. apricot marmalade or jam
- 3 TB. almond paste
- 1 ea. lemon
- 1/2 C. sugar
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Peel the apples.
- Cut each apple in half from the stem down.
- Slice off stem side and bottom side to get rid of any peel.
- Core the apple halves. (I find it easy to core apple halves this way.)
- Now slice each half into as thin as possible slices with a sharp knife.
- Mix the egg and water to make egg wash.
- Brush each galette round of dough with the egg wash.
- Place a teaspoon of apricot jam in the center of each galette and spread out a bit.
- Place a fava bean size of almond paste flattened out in the center of each galette.
- Starting on the outside rim of each galette, fan slices of apple around, building a round pyramid.
- About 12-15 slices of apple per galette.
- Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice over each galette.
- Sprinkle tops of each with 2 tsp. sugar.
- Bake in 400 F degree oven for 30 minutes.
- Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake another 8 minutes.
- Dust with powdered sugar and set aside to cool for 2 minutes.
- Serve with a quenelle of lightly whipped crème fraiche. Also great with a little caramel sauce on the plate.
Event Information:
The Ahwahnee, hosts its 25th annual Chefs' Holidays event series, kicking off January 10 and continuing through February 4, 2010.
Chefs' Holidays brings together 29 prominent American chefs and culinary professionals in a wintertime celebration that includes a series of eight sessions, each featuring a "Meet the Chefs" reception, engaging cooking demonstrations, a behind-the-scenes kitchen tour and a five-course Chefs' Holidays Gala Dinner prepared by the headliner chef and paired with four wines, served by candlelight in The Ahwahnee Dining Room. Chefs' Holidays has become a premier and much-sought-after destination for epicures and culinary professionals alike.
Esteemed American culinary professionals making repeat appearances this year include Peggy Smith and Sue Conley of Cowgirl Creamery, Elizabeth Falkner of Citizen Cake and Orson, Douglas Keane of Cyrus, Stephanie Izard of The Goat, Paul Virant of Vie, Duskie Estes and John Stewart of Zazu and Bovolo, Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver of La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, Jesse Ziff Cool of Flea St. Café, Cal Stamenov of Bernardus Lodge, Ken Frank of La Toque and Annie Somerville of Greens.
Newly added this season is a special Bravo TV "Top Chef" Contestants series featuring Ryan Scott of Ryan Scott 2 Go, Ariane Duarte of Culinariane and Carla Hall of Alchemy Caterers. Other newcomers who will be welcomed to the event this year are Matt Bolton of Pacific's Edge, David Kinch of Manresa, Bruce Sherman of North Pond, Christopher Lee of Aureole, Hoss Zaré of Zaré at Fly Trap, Brad Farmerie of PUBLIC, Double Crown and The Monday Room, Suzanne Goin of Lucques, Jody Adams of Rialto, Michelle Mah of midi, and Loretta Keller of COCO5OO.
The Ahwahnee
One Ahwahnee Drive
Yosemite National Park, CA 95389
Phone: 801-559-4949
Website: www.yosemitepark.com
About Elizabeth Falkner:
With her spiky platinum hair and unstoppable creativity, Elizabeth Falkner has become one of the most recognizable faces of the Bay Area culinary world on the Food Network, Bravo and beyond. She has been a frequent contestant, judge, and guest on Top Chef Masters, Top Chef, Iron Chef America, Sugar Rush, Tyler's Ultimate with Tyler Florence, Rachael Ray's $40 a Day, Martha Stewart Living and more.
Orson, her second restaurant, follows her Hayes Valley's hit, Citizen Cake a restaurant with and patisserie. Awarded a recommendation by Michelin in 2007, Citizen Cake has scooped up numerous commendations from both local and national media, including Best Dessert for the past three years from 7x7 magazine.
As executive chef of Orson, Falkner explores familiar and iconic dishes with personal flair. After three busy years, Falkner moved Citizen Cake to Hayes Valley, on the corner of Grove and Gough Streets, in 2000, and expanded it into an elegant restaurant, bar, and patisserie.
Citizen Cake helped spearhead the development of Hayes Valley into a citywide destination for fine dining, shopping, and socializing. Before starting her own business, Falkner was an acclaimed pastry chef at Rubicon, working with chef Traci Des Jardins. Prior to Rubicon, she honed her craft in the kitchens of Masa's and Elka.
Throughout her career, Falkner has been both a leader and a mentor to many other chefs, working closely with Les Dames d'Escoffier and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR) who awarded her their Golden Bowl for Pastry in 2003.
She has been named the city's "Best Pastry Chef" by San Francisco magazine and a Rising Star Chef by the San Francisco Chronicle. Bon Appetit magazine hailed her as one of America's 10 top pastry chefs in 2003, and named her Pastry Chef of the Year in 2006.
In 2005, she was nominated for the pastry chef of the year award by the James Beard Foundation (JBF) and has been a featured guest chef for JBF hosting dinners for the foundation in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Falkner's dramatically architectural "cakescapes" and whimsically deconstructed desserts have been featured in dozens of magazines, including Pastry Art and Design, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Food and Wine, Travel and Leisure and Epica, Japan's travel magazine.
Demolition Desserts her first cookbook, was published by Ten Speed Press in 2007. Using vivid manga-inspired graphics, Demolition Desserts lays out the elements of Falkner's multi-part contemporary desserts to make even the most inventive combinations easily accessible to home chefs.
>> Buy this book on Amazon: Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts: Recipes from Citizen Cake
