Pink Apple and Cranberry Galette

Here's the latest Bungalow creation -- an Apple-Cranberry Galette, made with Pink Pearl apples (they're pink on the inside, too)!


A quick description: a flaky cream-cheese pie crust is spread with a thin layer of easy home-made apple-cranberry jam (from frozen juice concentrate), then topped with thinly sliced pink apples and dried cranberries moistened with more apple-cranberry juice and the remaining jam. This was inspired by the Heavenly Peach Galette posted on Rose Levy Beranbaum's blog, with some ideas from Dorie Greenspan's Summer Fruit Galette as well.

For the pastry dough, I used Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cream Cheese Pie Crust, from her "Pie and Pastry Bible." (Her latest version of this crust can be found here.) However, instead of bleached flour or Wondra, I used 122 grams of unbleached pastry flour and 62 grams of unbleached all-purpose flour. I mixed the dry ingredients, cream cheese, and butter in the food processor, then dumped the mixture into a bowl and stirred in the vinegar and cream with a fork. I needed about an extra tablespoon of cream to bring the dough together -- perhaps because I was using different flour. I turned the dough out onto a clean surface and did a quick "fraisage" -- this really helps keep the galette dough from cracking. Thanks to Cooks' Illustrated for the idea.

I love this crust! It is very flaky and easy to work with. Be sure to use a "soft" (low-protein) flour to make it, though, or it will be tough. (I speak from experience.) The water in the cream cheese develops the gluten more than in regular pie crust.

I refrigerated the dough overnight, then froze it until I was ready to bake.


Filling:
5 medium-size organic Pink Pearl apples (they have pink flesh)
about 2 teaspoons lemon juice
about 3 Tablespoons cranberry-apple juice frozen concentrate (not diluted)
about 3 Tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
about 1 Tablespoon potato starch
about 1/3 cup dried sweetened cranberries

Jam:
about 3 tablespoons water
about 8 tablespoons cranberry-apple juice frozen concentrate
cores and trimmings from apples
about 2 Tablespoons sugar

Crumbs:
I used 2 teaspoons of semolina, but would have preferred to use a couple of tablespoons of crushed Amaretti or vanilla wafers. I just didn't have any on hand.

Place water and juice for jam into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Put the cranberries in a bowl and pour enough of the hot mixture over to cover. Let sit while you prepare the apples.

Wash the apples well, but do not peel. Cut in half, then remove stem & blossom ends with a paring knife and core with melon baller (thanks to Nick Malgieri for this tip). Discard any dirty or nasty-looking bits and place the rest of the cores and ends into the saucepan with the remaining juice. (Seeds are O.K. -- you will be straining it later.) Rub the cut areas of the apple halves with a bit of lemon juice.

Mix the lemon juice and cranberry juice for the filling and place in large bowl. Lay each apple half cut side down and trim off a little bit from stem and blossom ends. (These also go into the jam saucepan.) Cut apple into thin slices, cutting parallel to the "equator" of the apple. As you slice each half, place slices into bowl and toss gently to coat with lemon/cranberry juice. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and potato starch and mix gently just to combine. Cover and set aside.

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and set a pizza stone or heavy metal pan on the rack. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Have ready a round pizza pan at least 10 inches in diameter, or a baking pan large enough to hold the galette.

Drain the excess juice from the dried cranberries and add that juice to the jam saucepan. Bring the jam mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until apple flesh is very soft. Strain through medium sieve, pressing so that pulp goes through and only peels, seeds and the hard bits from the core remain. Return strained jam to saucepan and continue simmering until thick and "jammy." Put into metal bowl and set in freezer for 10 minutes or so to cool.

Roll out pie dough on a sheet of parchment paper to about 14 inches in diameter. Trim any edges that extend too far and use them to patch the parts that don't go far enough. Continue rolling out the outer edges of the dough, but leave the center 11 inches or so alone. You want the outer 2 or 3 inches of the dough to be extremely thin. The dough should be about 18 inches in diameter when you are done.

Spread some of the cooled jam in a circle in the center of dough, about 10 inches in diameter. (I tried using a pastry brush for this, but it didn't work all that well. What worked was spooning the jam on, then smoothing it with the back of the spoon.) Sprinkle the crumbs in a thin layer on top of the jam. Arrange the some of the apple slices in a layer over the jam & crumbs, strew some of the cranberries over them, and repeat until all the apples and cranberries are used up.


Bring the edges of the dough up over the filling, pleat and smooth down. Pour more jam on top of the center of the galette -- as much as will go in. Brush pastry lightly with water and sprinkle with sugar or superfine sugar. (I didn't do this -- but it's what I would do next time.)

Use parchment to transfer galette onto pizza pan or baking pan. Place onto pizza stone or hot baking pan in oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 400, then turn heat down to 350 and bake until crust is brown and filling is bubbling in center. It will take about an hour to bake.

I tried brushing the galette with diluted cranberry juice about 15 minutes before it was ready. I hoped this would make the crust pink, but instead it turned really brown. I didn't like the effect. So much for that idea. I suppose I could sprinkle it with red or pink decorating sugar, but...that sounds like too much work. And I don't like to use artificial colors. So, no pink crust -- it was still delicious!