Salted Butter Apple Galette for a Local Dinner Party

The summer after I graduated college, I moved to Burlington, Vermont. I'd wanted to live in New England for a long time, had a job lined up, but other than my future boss who'd I'd talked to on the phone a few times, I didn't know a soul. I was excited about a new adventure, but was sad and scared to be leaving the close creative community my college friends and I had formed.

On the first day of my job in Vermont, I met my soon-to-be-good-friend Angela, who that night brought me to an event that just about immediately overhauled my Vermont life-- The Seamonster Potluck.



I don't know the exact details of how it started, but I do know it had always been hosted by my other soon-to-be-good-friends Meghan and Gahlord, occurred on the third Thursday of every month, and would quickly become a foundation for my entire social life and serve as the gateway to best friends, the forming of multiple bands, a shared studio space, and many, many epic parties.

The Seamonster Potluck taught me the power of a small, simple gathering of people coming together to break bread. It's a lesson I can sometimes forget in the chaos of daily life, but one I've kept coming back to since I moved away from that fair city on Lake Champlain.



A few weeks ago, my friends Morgan, Dalila and I hosted a similar simple potluck, with the help of some local businesses and a very game group of guests. From the Farmer generously donated boxes of local produce to all attendees who were up for cooking a homemade dish to share, and other guests were charged with bringing a local product of their choice, whether it be DC Brau Public Ale, Gordy's pickles, or Dolcezzo Salted Caramel Gelatto. West Elm DC offered their place settings and mercury glass table décor while DeVinos lent a hand on the wine-front.

Morgan and Mitchell graciously offered to host the gathering in their cool Adams Morgan apartment, already well-stocked with 2 essential mood makers-- Christmas lights and good records. Guests' dishes complemented each other for a hearty winter meal-- we had French onion soup and mushroom-almond tapenade, parmesan celery spread and a local baguette, marinated broccoli with soft-boiled farm eggs, a butternut squash and apple tart with stilton and quinoa, sausage-pumpkin-spinach salad, and much more. I made a savory mushroom-gruyère tart, and a simple salted butter apple galette with maple whipped cream, adapted from Bon Appetit.

Salted Butter Apple Galette with Maple Whipped Cream
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients
Nothing in the House pie crust
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1 pound (about 3 large) baking apples, washed and sliced 1/8-inch thick
3 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon Turbinado sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tablespoons maple syrup, grade B

Directions
1. Prepare Nothing in the House pie crust as per the directions. Chill dough in the fridge at least one hour. Meanwhile, prepare the salted butter glaze.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place butter in a small saucepan and scrape in vanilla seeds; add pod. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until butter foams, then browns (be careful not to burn), 5-8 minutes. Remove pan from heat and remove pod.

3. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a rough 14x10-inch rectangle about 1/8-inch thick. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Arrange apple slices on top, overlapping and leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Brush apples with brown butter and sprinkle with brown sugar. Lift edges of dough over apples, tucking and overlapping as needed to keep rectangular shape.

4. Beat egg with 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl and brush crust with egg wash. Sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake, rotating once, until apples are soft and juicy and crust is golden brown 40-50 minutes. Let cool slightly on baking sheet before slicing.

5. Beat cream in a medium bowl to medium soft peaks. Fold in maple syrup and serve with galette.

The dinner party was reminiscent of those best Seamonster potlucks-- really the way all dinner gatherings should be-- relaxed, delicious, and oh so cozy, with an overall feeling of warmth-- from the conversation, candles, AND red wine.

Big thanks to Morgan Hungerford West and Mitchell West for hosting, Dalila Boclin for coordinating, Cortney Hungerford for photography, all our awesome guests, and local partners-- From the Farmer, West Elm DC, DeVinos, and DC Brau.

Head on over to Panda Head for MORE.

Related recipes:
Apple Galette
Apple Pie with Salted Caramel Glaze
Cranberry-Lime Galette
Satsuma Orange Galette with Cream Cheese Crust

Photos by Cortney Hungerford and Morgan Hungerford-West

Apple Pickin' Recipes in Luri & Wilma

Ah....October at last. In my opinion, it's the best month of the year-- for woods walks in sweaters 'n' boots, Brit folk on the stereo, and a huge pot of apple butter cooking down on the stove (oh, also Halloween, duh!). But it takes a lot of apples to make all those jars of preserves, so you'd better make your way to your nearest orchard and pick yourself a bushel or two.

Growing up, we took a yearly visit to Eberly's Orchard, a place I've often mentioned and documented here. Since then, I've always tried to keep that annual tradition alive, finding a nearby apple orchard wherever I may be. Sometimes it's required convincing friends to spend a whole day in the car, and no orchard quite measures up to the one of my childhood, but I still consider it a necessary autumn ritual.

For Luri and Wilma's Fall Issue, I wrote a little piece about that tradition, and what to do with your apple pickin' haul i.e. make apple tarts, apple cider doughnuts, and apple butter! Above and below are pages from that story, and you can find my rustic apple tart recipe here, but for the full scoop, check out the issue online. Then gather up some friends, lace up your boots, and head out for the apple trees!

Tarts by Tarts Starts!

This past Satuday, after baking all day Friday, 2 hours of sleep, and getting up at 4am to fry doughnuts, my friend Kari and I took to D.C.'s Crafty Bastards Food Market for the debut of Tarts by Tarts! We set up our stand with ticking and tablecloth, a pennant flag, homemade stamped business cards, baskets, wooden library boxes and Kari's genius "doughnut suitcase"; despite the dreary day, I must say that it looked pretty cute.

We opened for business at 10am and had a steady stream of customers, many of them after our hot mulled cider with a doughnut hole-on-a-stir-stick (it was cold) and our other breakfast-y treats. By 11am business had really picked up, and we were slammed for 2 hours straight, with a constant line of friendly folks who had lots of nice things to say about our goods.

 

Here's what we offered:  

Tarts by Tarts at Crafty Bastards  
Hot mulled cider with a doughnut hole 
Dulce de leche filled yeast doughnuts 
Apple cider donuts 
Glazed buttermilk cake donuts (vanilla and chocolate) 
Pumpkin whoopie pies with maple cream cheese filling 
Molasses gingerbread (slices) 
Double chocolate rads (cookies) 
Vegan iced oatmeal cookies 
Savory apple tart with carmelized onions, gruyere and sage (recipe to be posted soon!) 
Plum hazelnut tartlets 
Apple tartlets with homemade apple butter 
Honey walnut tartlets

 

By 2pm we had completely sold out (though in the last fifteen minutes we had a "name your price" deal to clear our few remaining cookies and pumpkin whoopie pies. Though it would have been nice to stick around and talk to more people, we were thankful to get out a little early, as we were freezing, rain-drenched, and exhausted. All-in-all our first outing as Tarts by Tarts was quite the success! We sold out and even made a little bit of money, which exceeded our goals and was encouraging as we had no idea what to expect from Crafty Bastard's first Crafty Food Market.

 

Kari and I would like to extend a special thanks to all those friends who helped make this possible--everyone who lent a table or a tent, a thermos, or the use of a van, stopped by to say hi and buy, helped us set-up, tear down, as well as those who kept us going while baking by offering jokes,  late-night grocery-run accompaniment, and encouragement. I'd also like to thank Kari for being an awesome baking partner and sharing all her baked goods sale expertise! Looking forward to doing it again soon. Stay updated on future Tarts by Tarts adventures on our blog here: http://tartsbytarts.tumblr.com/

Two "Chicken" Pot Pies and an Apple Tart

Last week my friend Jon made some delicious chicken and "chicken-less" pot pies and shared it with some friends and I for dinner on a rainy spring evening in Carrboro. The chicken-less pie (above) had quorn patty chunks and the chicken pie (below) had gen-u-ine chicken (and an overflowing crust).


Both pies had the same vegetable ingredients of pearl onions (an excellent addition), peas, corn, carrots, and potatoes in gravy. The folks who tried both said they couldn't really tell the difference between the two.


I contributed a free-jazz apple tart I made, drawing from a combination of past attempted apple tart recipes.


The recipe I made up was approximately as follows:

Free-jazz apple tart

Ingredients:
3 tart apples, cored and very thinly sliced
1/2 c. homemade apple butter
1/4 c. homemade apple-rosemary jelly
juice of 1/2 lemon
raw sugar for sprinkling
nothing-in-the-house pie crust recipe, halved (bottom crust only)

Prepare crust with recipe found here. Refrigerate. Core and thinly slice 3 apples and place in a bowl. Squeeze juice of half of a lemon over the apples and stir. Roll out dough and place in a greased and floured tart pan. Spread apple butter on crust and place apple slices in concentric circles over the apple butter. Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake at 375 for approximately 35-45 minutes. Cool. When tart is still warm, heat apple-rosemary jelly and drizzle over the tart. Slice and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I brought the tart over in the double-decker Amish pie carrying basket my parents gave me for Christmas last year.


After a full-day in the library working on my thesis, this pie dinner was just the perfect treat.

Apple Galette at MAV's

For the past five years I have gone to Portland, Maine for Thanksgiving. This year, though, my friends Diane & Jorge got married there in late-October, so I made my trek a month early.

I stayed with my friend Maria (MAV) who writes the beautiful 3191 blog. After she picked me up from the airport, we hit the Rosemont Market for some lunch and ingredients, and then both settled into her apt/studio and got to work. She was printing cards on her letterpress and I was set up in the kitchen to make a galette.

See this and more of her photos here

She recommended a recipe from David Tanis' cookbook "A Platter of Figs" for a rectangular apple tart. I followed his recipe, with some adaptations, like using half whole wheat pastry flour and leaving the apple skins on. My recipe is as follows:

Apple Galette

Ingredients
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust, with 1 c. all-purpose flour and 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour

8 medium apples of similar size but various varieties

1 c. sugar + extra for sprinkling

1 c. water

Directions
1. Make crust as per the directions and refrigerate. Meanwhile, core and slice apples as thin as possible. Reserve the cores for the glaze.

2. For the glaze, combine cores, sugar and water in saucepan and simmer until thickened. Strain and reserve. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

3. When the glaze is finished, roll out the dough in a rectangle on parchment paper. Transfer the parchment paper and dough to a rectangular baking sheet, and place apple slices in 5 rows over the crust. Leave a little crust around the edges to fold over the sides. Sprinkle sugar over the apples and bake for 45 min. Before serving, reheat the glaze and brush over the apples.

After we finished our work for the day, Maria and I had ours with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, but we thought it would also be delicious with a slice of aged, grainy gouda! This recipe is super simple and really showcases the fruit.

Though I am already missing Thanksgiving deliciousness, outdoor fires, and folk-freestying with the Portland crew, our October reunion in Maine was pretty spectacular. It was peak fall color time, I witnessed and celebrated the marriage of two favorite people, with even more favorite people, and just at the moment that the galette came out of the oven, there was a double rainbow, visible from Maria's apartment! For real no joke!

Maine (& MAV) = Magic. Miss you guys.

Christmas Tart

For Christmas this year, my brother, mom, dad and I spent the day opening presents, listening to music, lounging about the house, and making food together. One of my presents was Michel Roux's Pastry (which I previously drooled over at Rabelais in Portland, ME). I wanted to try something from the book, and my dad had brought home a bushel of Arkansas Black apples, so I settled on the classic Apple Tart. It seems that this was the year for them. I followed the recipe in its entirety, using Michel's tart crust recipe. It is as follows:

Tart Pie Dough
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 stick butter, cut into small pieces and slightly softened
1 medium egg
1 tsp. superfine sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 Tblsp. cold water

Heap the flour in the bowl and make a well. Put the butter, egg, sugar and salt in the middle. With your fingertips, mix and cream ingredients in the well. Draw flour into center and work dough to a grainy texture. Add cold water and mix until dough holds together. Push dough away from you 4-5 times until it is smooth. Roll dough in ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Apple Tart
Tart Pie Dough
6 dessert apples (I used Arkansas Black)
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (we didn't have any, so I used extract)
4 1/2 Tblsp. butter
scant 1/2 c. superfine sugar

Roll out dough in circle and use to line a buttered and floured tart pan. Pinch up edges with index finger to make a fluted edge higher than the dish. Chill for at least 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel, core and halve apples. Cut into very fine slices. Put 1/3 of apples in a pan and add 1/4 c. water, vanilla and butter and cook until tender. Take off heat, discard vanilla bean and work the apples with a whisk to compote consistency. Let cool. For glaze, in small pan, dissolve sugar in 2 1/2 Tbslp. water. Bring to boil and bubble for 4-5 minutes to make a syrup. Let cool. Prick base of pastry shell lightly. Pour in cold apple compote and spread. Arrange a border of overlapping apple slices around tart, then arrange another circle inside with slices facing the other way. Fill center with a small rosette of slices. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before removing tart pan. Brush top with glaze. Cut and enjoy!
I liked this recipe, but I am of the opinion that butter in pie dough should be as COLD as possible during preparation to facilitate supreme flakiness. But for a traditional tart crust, this was easy and tasted good. We topped it off with brandy and Indiana maple syrup-spiked whipped cream, then entered the TEZ...Mom in the TEZGrant in the TEZ.

Look for more Michel Roux recipes in 2010 as I delve into my lovely Christmas present!

Tarte Tatin

Last week Erica (a.k.a. my awesome WXYC mentor DJ) and I got together to bake a tart. We settled on the classic French upside-down carmelized apple tart, tarte tatin, using the recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook:

Tarte Tatin

Ingredients:
Nothing-in-the-house crust recipe, using all-purpose flour (at right)
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
7-9 apples, cored and quartered (we used Jonagold and Gala)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare crust (recipe at right) and refrigerate. Spread butter on bottom and sides of cast iron skillet and pour sugar evenly over bottom. Arrange apples tightly in concentric circles in pan. Cook apples on moderately high heat, without stirring until juices are deep golden and bubbling (YEAH!), about 18-25 minutes. Meanwhile, roll out crust in a circle large enough to cover the skillet and sides. Bake apples in the skillet for 20 minutes (apples will settle and become soft). Remove skillet from oven and lay the pastry round over the apples, tucking in the sides. Bake until pastry is browned 20-25 minutes. Transfer skillet to a rack and cool for at least 10 minutes. Just before serving, flip skillet onto plate to upright so that pastry is on the bottom and apples are on top. Serve immediately.

My skillet had gone missing, so we had to do some shuffling of pans...THEN we got to girl-talking and nearly scorched the apples, but they ended up just on the brink between perfectly carmelized and burnt. Topped it all off with a bit of bourbon-ginger whipped cream. We thought that it could use a bit more sweetness and spice--perhaps some cinnamon and ginger tossed with the apples. But still...
DJ-LICIOUS!

A Tale of Two Tarts

Let's begin at the start of these tarts, which was for me, an apple picking adventure to Ayers Orchard in Cana, VA, the closest orchard I could find. Apple picking is THE quintessential fall tradition in my book, and I convinced 2 carloads of friends to drive 2 hours (plus) to humor me in my stubborn adherence to it. After being led on a wild goose chase by the Australian woman in the GPS, we stopped at a country gas station, where we got directions ("up the hill, down the hill, up the hill, and down the hill") to "his mama's house" from whence we were told to take "all lefts except for the right" to the orchard warehouse, where we were drawn a puzzling "map" by the orcardist, we FINALLY found the grove, enjoyed a lovely picnic, and picked a bushel each of Fujis and Arkansas Blacks.

Stuffed my spoils in my (mama's) shirt

Back home on the Piedmont, I turned these apples into butter, grilled-cheese apple sandwiches, daily snacks, and tarts. For the first I used this recipe from Alice Waters/Smitten Kitchen.   It calls for a food processor-mixed pastry, of which I was skeptical, but I had heard a lot of advocates of this practice, so I decided to give it a try. The dough came together easier than by hand, and the whole tart looked rather nice with its spiraled delicate apple slices, but I just don't think there's any comparison to pastry dough mixed by hand. The butter stays chunkier and melts less, making it so much flakier. It was still a tasty treat, and Neale and James came over to enjoy.

Neale and James in the TEZ

For the second tart, I decided to go with what I know--the standard crust recipe, and the apple butter my friend Lora and I had just made and canned. Plus Miss Lapidus was visiting. We opted for the rustic tart, being the rustic tarts that we are. Here's the approximate recipe we used:   Simple Rustic Apple Tart

Ingredients
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust (at right), using all-purpose flour
2 lbs. apples (we used Arkansas Blacks)
5 Tblsp. sugar: white and turbinado mixture
1/2 c. homemade apple butter
1 Tblsp. lemon juice

Directions 1. Make pie crust and once chilled, roll out in 10-in circle. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  2. Core and cut apples into delicate thin slices. Toss apples with lemon juice and 3 Tblsp. sugar.  3. Brush apple butter onto pastry dough and arrange apples on top of the apple butter in concentric spiraling circles. Fold crust over edges. Sprinkle 2 Tblsp. sugar over top of apples and crust.  4. Bake for 35-45 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Enjoy!

You are what you eat: rustic tart for a rustic tart

In other news, I look forward to seeing what pies our Nothing-In-The-House correspondents will make for Thanksgiving, the #1 biggest pie day of the year!

Pies Oh Mies, By Marina

Louis with a tart

For the Tivoli Craft day last weekend, I baked and sold some pies and tarts. The pies were Apple Green Tomato, and the tarts were Apple with Almond Cream... so scrummy both.

 

Pies in the oven

I got one lovely testimonial from a lady the day after she bought the Apple Green Tomato pie "We had your pie for dessert last night and it was delicious! (in a whisper) I even had some for breakfast." Sophia's choice quote was "Pie is always good in a pinch."

Alen Newman with pie

Also, before the craft fair I went to the bakery to buy some pie boxes, and Mikey said I should sell them for $12, or $2.50 per slice. When Sophia went back on Sunday to get two more boxes, Mikey asked how much I was selling them for, she said $12, and that they were selling fast, and he - very uncharacteristically - got very excited saying "Yes! Good for her! Right on!" and such and such.

The Pie Stand

HOORAY FOR PIES!