Move Over Apple Pie — This Galette Is About To Steal the Spotlight of Your Dessert Display

Traditional pies are overrated! For that reason, I always opt for a galette, a free-form pie that’s a bit more foolproof and always a showstopper on the table. In this recipe, a flaky all-butter crust is rolled out and filled with salted caramel-drenched apple filling to add some oomph that your average apple pie is missing. There’s one big secret in this dish: vodka — and it’s not because you’ll need a drink to wash down all your hard work. Using alcohol in the recipe helps create a more pliable dough that’s easier to work with and helps prevent gluten development. You end up with a crisper and tender crust. Around the holidays, I always batch out dough in advance, keeping it in the freezer for whenever I want to bake up a galette.

Jake Cohen’s Caramel-Apple Galette Recipe

• Yield: 10-12 servings
• Prep Time: 20 minutes, plus chilling and cooling time
• Cook Time: 1 hour

Dough Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1½ sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
• ½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons ice-cold water
• 2 tablespoons vodka

Filling Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 pounds Honeycrisp apples, cored and sliced ¼-inch thick
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Assembly Ingredients

• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar or granulated sugar

Directions

1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until pea-sized crumbles form. Add the water and vodka and continue to knead until a dough forms. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, make the filling: In a medium saucepan, stir the sugar with 2 tablespoons water over medium-high heat until it has dissolved and turned dark amber in color, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in cream, butter and salt, then transfer to a heatproof bowl to cool.
3. In a large bowl, toss the apples with the cornstarch, followed by the cooled caramel to incorporate.
4. Assemble the galette: Preheat the oven to 400º. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into an 18-inch circle, ⅙-inch thick. Transfer the dough over to a sheet of parchment paper and pile the apples in the center, leaving the outer 2 inches of dough bare.
5. Fold the outer dough over the apples in a series of pleats to form the galette. Brush the outside crust liberally with the beaten egg. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the egg wash.
6. Bake until the galette is golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool completely, then slice and serve.

Jake Cohen is a New York Times bestselling cookbook author and nice Jewish boy from NYC. He wrote his first book, Jew-ish, about his love of modern Jewish cooking and baking; his sophomore book, I Could Nosh, is in stores now.