Spelt Apple Galette

Spelt Apple Galette

I made this for a dinner last week for the plant-based cleaning brand, Method.  I served it with salted caramel sauce, whipped coconut cream, toasted pecans, caramelised apple crisp and edible flowers. The evening was all about bringing together, art with food in a beautiful space. 

It took me a few times to get this tart right as I didn’t have a good vegan pastry recipe at hand.  I settled on using ground flaxseed which has the added bonus of being a more natural binder and high in omega 3. 

Using spelt flour meant that it has the taste of a normal pastry and so you can’t really tell the difference.  I added in a little chestnut flour for a boost of nuttiness but you could add in almond flour if you prefer, or just add 70g more spelt.  Serve with coconut yoghurt on the side!

Ingredients:

Vegan

Serves 12

700g apples (about 5), thinly slice keeping the skin on to 1/3cm thick and into half-moon pieces

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Few gratings nutmeg

Pinch of ground cloves

3 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp sunflower spread

2 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp almond milk

2 tbsp maple syrup

For the pastry

300g spelt flour

100g chestnut flour

120g caster sugar

4 tbsp ground flaxseed

240g sunflower spread (I like to use Pure brand)

2 tbsp almond milk

Icing sugar for dusting

Making Your Galette

Start with the pastry.  Add the spelt, chestnut flour, sugar and flaxseed into a bowl and mix.  Then add the sunflower spread in chunks and start to bring the dough together.  You can use a spoon for this. 

Then add the almond milk and bring it all into a ball.  Wrap in a beeswax wrap or cling film and place into the fridge for 1 hour or so to rest.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees (celsius). 

In a large bowl add the first 9 ingredients for the filling and mix together.  Make sure you spread the sunflower spread around. 

Then cut a large piece of baking paper or use a large baking mat and sprinkle with a little spelt flour. 

Pat the dough down, lightly dust with flour and start to roll out into a large circle about 1cm thick.  Try to make sure the pastry is even all over.  Use a butter knife to cut away the excess bits and neaten the circle.

Then start to orderly make a pattern with the apple pieces.  I start from the outside and work my way in. Make sure that you leave about 3/3.5cm around of pastry for folding later.  Try and keep the apple pieces tight and overlapping. 

Then dust hands with flour and carefully fold over an edge of the pastry towards the middle.  Use the baking mat/paper to help you so that it doesn’t break and do it gently. 

Then continue and fold in the side next to it and you should end up folding about 6-7 edges and try to keep them equal.  If one pastry flap looks a little bigger, you can slice it off with the knife. 

Then use a pastry brush or your fingers to paint some almond milk on the pastry.  This will help colour it. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes and then use the brush to paint maple syrup onto the apples to add more colour. 

Bake for another 15-20 minutes. The pastry should have darkened and the apples should have some nice colour on them. 

Remove from the oven and serve warm or cool with a dollop of coconut yoghurt and a good sprinkling of icing sugar.