Gluten Free Apple Galette with Sea Salt Caramel

Before I became gluten intolerant in 2008, I was a self-proclaimed bad baker. If I had baking success it seemed to be a one-off luck sort of thing. Then when suddenly, I couldn’t have gluten, baking became a necessity since a few trials in the gluten-free bakery shelf will yield nothing more than cardboard passing off as bread, pastry or pizza. While I still haven’t found the perfect sub for pizza crust (Comment below if you know of a REALLY good GF pizza crust here!) I have found one for almost any other baked good. Ok, well chocolate croissants are still a mystery, too, but that’s another baking story.

What is an Apple Galette?

This “pie” came about when I was needing to use up about a bushel of apple cast-offs from a winery in Sonoma when we lived in Northern California. I had never been successful at baking pies and didn’t figure having to make one GF would make it any easier, but I wanted to make an apple pie so I looked up Gluten Free Pie Crust. What I found was this recipe and rather than having to deal with the drama of making a pie crust, I decided to roll it out flat and pile the fruit in the middle. In Italian cuisine, this is called a crostata, in French it is a galette. Having a special place in my heart for France, I called my creation a galette and after a brushing of egg yolk for sheen and a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar for crunch, it turned out beautiful. The bonus is you don’t have to worry about that first piece of pie fail that is eminent upon cutting.

Gluten Free Apple Galette Pie Crust Tips

One side note..since I first started making this pastry recipe and was afraid to form an actual pie crust, I found out that you can roll out a beautiful pie crust that will fit into a pie plate just like a normal pastry recipes. The beauty of gluten free baking is the gluten is the wildcard that causes pie crusts and cakes to be tough if handled improperly. Therefore, when you are baking gluten-free you don’t have to let pastry rest before rolling, in fact it works better not to do so. Once I learned this little tidbit, I have started immediately rolling out two pastry crusts as soon as I form the dough. I can usually make a galette and a pie crust or I can make two pie crusts. If making pies, I just transfer them to the pans and crimp the edges then refrigerate (or freeze). If I am just wanting to make galettes, I roll out both and then transfer them to the freezer frozen between parchment paper. You can freeze the dough in a disk and roll out when you are ready, just know it will be rather crumbly and you will have to work with it a bit. It still is almost failproof, though since you can just press the pieces back together. See this pecan pie I made for Thanksgiving? It’s the first pie crust I’ve made successfully!

Fillings for Gluten Free Apple Galette

Now that you have the crust recipe, I will simply give you ideas for the filling and of course the luscious eat-by-the-spoonful caramel sauce.

4-5 apples, peeled and sliced with organic sugar, sucanat or honey, cinnamon and a tablespoon of starch (tapioca, corn or potato)
4-5 peaches, big squeeze of lemon, a tiny bit of honey or sucanat and a tablespoon of starch
Any variety of jam or marmalade you have in your fridge topped with a crumble of GF flour, butter and sugar
2 cups of raspberries or blueberries macerated with 1/4 cup of sugar then mixed with 1 tablespoon or two of starch