Recipe - Caramelized Apple Galette

1 Recipe Quick Puff Pastry
(Recipe Follows)
1 Northern Spy, Or
Other Firm Baking Apple
One fourth cup Sugar
2 Tbls Unsalted Butter
1 Tbls Calvados; french apple
brandy

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out an eighth of quick puff pastry
dough recipe to about 1/8 inch thickness. Using a sharp parking knife, cut
dough into a circle about 7 One half inches in diameter. Transfer to a
parchment lined baking sheet, and place in refrigerator to chill about 15
minutes. Heat oven to 425F. Place the chilled pastry dough in a heavy cast
iron skillet that measure 6 One half inches in diameter at the bottom. Peel,
core and slice the apple in half lengthwise. Using a mandoline or very
sharp knife, slice apple halves, widthwise into twenty five 1/8 inch
slices. Arrange the slices in a neat fanned pattern, overlapping he
apples, keeping them One half inch in from the edge of the pastry dough, fill in
the center with smaller or broken apple slices as you create the fanned out
circle. Sprinkle two tablespoons sugar over the apples, and dot with 1
tablespoon butter, cut into very small pieces. Place skillet in the oven,
and bake until the pstry has puffed up along the edges of te pan and is
golden brown, about
30 minutes. Remove the skillet from the oven. Using a spatula
remove the tart from the skillet, and transfer to a plate, set aside. Add
the remaining tablespoon butter to the skillet, and place over medium heat.
Add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, and cook until the sugar dissolves
and forms a light caramel, about 5 minutes. Measure Calvados into a glass
then pour into the caramel, cook out the alcohol, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Return the tart to the skillet, apple side down and cook 4 to 5 minutes,
until the caramel bubbles up over the tart, and starts to look a litle
thick. Remove the skillet from the heat, and carefully invert the tart onto
a plate large enough to catch the hot caramel as it drips out of the
skillet.

Quick Puff Pastry Makes 2 lbs
1 Three fourths cup all purpose flour 2 cups cake flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups
(4 sticks) unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small pieces 1 cup to 1 1/4
cups ice water 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Sift together the all purpose flour, cake flour and salt into a large
chilled bowl. Cut in the pieces of butter, using a pastry knife until the
butter is in very small lumps, about One half inch in diameter. Combine the ice
water and lemon juice, and stir into the flour mixture, a little at a time
pressing the dough together with your hands until it comes together. Turn
the dough out onto a well floured work surface and roll it into a One half inch
thick rough rectangle, approximately 12 by 18 inches. The dough will be
very crumbly. Fold bottom of the rectangle toward the center, then the top
of the rectangle toward the center, overlapping the bottom third, like a
letter, and give the dough a quarter turn to the right. Roll the dough into
a large rectangle, One half inch thick and fold into thirds again. This
completes the first double turn. Remove any excess flour with a wide dry
brush. Repeat rolling, folding, and turning process two more times to
execute another double turn, refrigerating the dough for a few minutes if
the butter becomes too warm. Wrap the dough in plastic, and put in
refrigerator to chill for 1 hour. Remove chilled dough from the
refrigerator. Repeat rolling, folding, and turning process again to
execture one more double turn. There will be six turns in all. The dough
needs to be rolled out to One half inch thick rectangle each time.With each
turn, the dough will become smoother and easier to handle. Store the dough,
wrapped well in plastic in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the
freezer for 3 months.
Recipe By : Martha Stewart Oct. 1996

Posted to MCRecipe Digest V1 #226

Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 10:22:26 0400

From: Eileen & Bob Holze beck4@asan.com

NOTES : This tart bakes best in a cast iron skillet