Apple Galette with Goat Cheese Thyme and Honey is a recipe I’ve been playing around in my crazy head for a while. I’ve been wanting to have another warm appetizer that would be awesome to add to a cocktail party or as part of a cheese spread for wine and nibbles. It came to me that my Butternut Squash galette had such a great crust to it. So I wanted to use that as a base again but to add more of a sweet bent to a rough open-faced tart. This galette is the result. It is sweet and savory and is perfect for a fall appetizer or even a light dinner with a salad. And it is all about the goat cheese in this tart. There is goat cheese in the crust, and a nice layer spread below the bubbling apple filling. If you love goat cheese as much as I do, this is the tart for you.
Galette in French means flat round cake, but it refers to a rough open in the middle tart in today’s baking world. Galettes can be sweet or savory, and here’s the beauty of them, they are supposed to look rough and rustic. So, forming the crust for a galette is quick and easy without fussing. Besides the resting times to help not promote a tough crust, the work involved is quick and easy. I threw this together in 15 minutes once the crust had rested.
Adding goat cheese to the crust gives some incredible savory notes to the flavor and makes this crust so flakey and tender. The crust recipe is all done by hand. The butter smearing into the dough and being careful not to overwork it really gives this dough some awesome flakiness. You don’t need any special equipment to make this Apple Galette with Goat Cheese Thyme and Honey, though a cookie sheet is a must for baking. If you need one, I love this one you can get from Amazon. (I get a small commission at no cost to you through any link on this page. Please consider helping fund this blog) If you line the cookie sheet with parchment paper, it makes clean-up a breeze, and parchment paper is helpful for so many ways in the world of baking.
This Apple Galette with Goat Cheese Thyme and Honey is so good. I’ll be making it often for dinner parties and gatherings I hopefully will be hosting this fall. It is unusual and different but yet comforting and familiar in its warm flavors of fall. I encourage you to try it next time you want to serve something extraordinary for a cocktail nibble.
Well, that is all for this week. I hope all of you are staying healthy and safe. Think of those around you in your choices of what you do. We all are here on this crazy whirlwind of a world together. We can all get through this with cooperation and compassion. Until next time!
- Goat Cheese Pastry
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter cut into pieces
- 10.5-11 oz package goat cheese divided, 1/4 cup for the crust, the remaining for the filling
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup ice water
- For the apple filling
- 1 ½ lbs cooking apples such as Granny Smith or Pippin or Macintosh.
- 2 tablespoons brown or turbinado sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons fresh thyme leaves divided
- 1 tablespoon flour
- The remaining goat cheese from the crust
- 3 tablespoons honey
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In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt.
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Place the chunks of butter on top of the flour in the same bowl.
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Place the bowl in the freezer for 1 hour.
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While the flour and butter are in the freezer, whisk together 1/4 cup of the goat cheese, lemon juice, and ice water and place in the refrigerator to keep as cold as possible. If you make the galette the same day, leave the remaining goat cheese out to soften for the filling.
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After an hour or more, remove the bowl from the freezer.
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Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour, only blending until you see pea-sized chunks of butter.
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Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, sprinkle the ice water and goat cheese mixture while fluffing with a fork to combine. Do not overwork it. The dough will seem a bit dry and crumbly.
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Turn out onto a work surface and work it into a flat disk. As you work it together, you can smear it a bit to get it to come together, but only until it has formed a dough. The key is to still have visible chunks of butter. But smearing it also makes some of the butter create layers to help make this flakey.
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Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or longer. At this point, the dough can be kept overnight and finished the next day.
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Preheat the oven to 425°.
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If it is the next day, take the remaining goat cheese out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
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Peel and core the apples and cut them into ½ inch slices
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In a bowl, toss the apple slices with the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the brown or turbinado sugar.
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Heat a skillet to medium heat with the butter and sauté the apple slices until starting to get tender, about 10 minutes.
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Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 teaspoon of the thyme and set aside to cool while you roll out the crust.
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On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into a 12-inch round rough circle. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle. Just try to get it as round as possible.
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Transfer the rolled-out pastry to an ungreased baking sheet. I like to line it with a piece of parchment for easy clean-up.
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Spread the remaining goat cheese over the dough, leaving a 2-inch border.
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Arrange the apple slices over the goat cheese again, leaving the 2-inch border.
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Fold the border over the apple and cheese mixture, pleating the edge to make it fit. The center will still be open.
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Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of the turbinado or brown sugar over the pleated crust edges.
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Bake the galette for 35 to 40 minutes or until the pastry is nicely golden brown and the apples are bubbling.
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While the galette is still hot, drizzle the honey over the tart and sprinkle the remaining thyme over the top.
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Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
