Recipe: Salted-caramel, apple and roasted-hazelnut galette

A fail-safe French pudding recipe from our kitchen garden cook.

Galettes are a fail-safe pudding and this one might rival your favourite apple crumble. As the seasons pass, the almonds and cinnamon can be easily adapted for other flavours.

Salted-caramel, apple and roasted-hazelnut galette

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the pastry

150g plain flour
75g ground almonds
2tbspn caster sugar
175g chilled butter
1 egg yolk
3–4tbspn ice water

For the caramel

100g butter
150g muscovado sugar
100ml double cream
1tspn sea salt

For the topping

3 apples
20g plain flour
50g brown sugar
2tspn ground cinnamon
100g roasted and chopped hazelnuts

Method

For the pastry, process together the flour, almonds, sugar, chopped butter and a pinch of salt until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk with a little water and blitz again until it comes together, adding further water if needed. Using your hands, press the pastry into a round disc, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate it for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the caramel sauce by melting the butter and sugar together in a pan over a medium heat. Allow the sugar to dissolve, then bring to a boil for a few minutes. Stir the double cream and sea salt through it and set aside.

Peel the apples and cut them into neat slices, then toss them in a bowl with the flour, sugar, cinnamon and hazelnuts.

Preheat your oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 3 and line a baking sheet with parchment. Roll the pastry gently into a circle about the thickness of a £1 coin. Arrange the apple slices and nuts in the centre, drizzle with a little caramel and pull the edges up on all sides. Bake for about 30–35 minutes or until golden.

Drizzle with a little more caramel sauce and serve hot, with vanilla ice cream or custard.

More ways with apples

Parsnip-and-apple soup with puy lentils

Put 6 peeled and roughly chopped parsnips, 3 peeled, cored and chopped apples, 1 chopped onion and 3 cloves of garlic into a large saucepan with enough hot chicken stock to just cover them. Simmer until tender, then process in a blender. To serve, add a drizzle of olive oil, cooked puy lentils (I used a microwaved sachet) and seasoning.

Apple fritters with cinnamon whipped cream

Whisk together 100g of self-raising flour with a quarter of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and gradually add soda water until you have a batter. Peel and core apples, then dip the rings in the batter before deep frying until lightly golden. Toss the apple rings in a bowl with caster sugar and a little cinnamon, then leave on a plate lined with kitchen roll while you finish the others. Serve accompanied by whipped cream with a little cinnamon and sugar running through it.