Baking & Breads BAKING

Rustic Apple Galette

Name: Rustic Apple Galette
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Baking
Ingredients: 200 g plain flour; 115 g cold butter; 2 tbsp sugar; 3 tbsp ice water; 50 g ground almonds; 3 apples, thinly sliced; 2 tbsp sugar; 1 tsp cinnamon; 1 egg, for wash

A galette is a tart with no tin and no rules — rustic folds hide a multitude of sins, so do not aim for neat..

By Dana Reyes

Published 23 Sep 2026 · Tested 2 times · 0 comments

Rustic Apple Galette — The free-form folds char at the edges and read as intentional, not messy.

25 min

Prep time

45 min

Cook time

Serves

4.7

NEW

Deliberately imperfect, which is why it looks tried

A galette is a tart with no tin and no rules — rustic folds hide a multitude of sins, so do not aim for neat.

Slice the apples thin so they soften in the same time as the pastry; a mandoline helps but a knife is fine.

We tested a plain and an almond base. The almond layer under the apples stops a soggy centre, so we keep it.

Instructions

About 75 min from start to finish

Rub the butter into the flour and sugar; add ice water to a dough. Chill 20 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Roll the dough to a rough round.

Scatter almonds over the centre, leaving a border; fan the apples, sugared and cinnamoned, on top.

Fold the border over the edges; brush with egg.

Bake 40-45 minutes until the pastry is deep gold and the apples soft.

Testing notes & substitutions

Three rounds of testing turned up three things worth knowing before you start cooking.

Soggy middle

The almond layer and a hot oven fix it; do not overload the apples.

Other fruit

Pears, plums or stone fruit all swap in by the season.

Questions we get a lot

Make ahead?

The dough keeps two days chilled; assemble just before baking for the crispest base.

Serve it how?

Warm with cream or a scoop of vanilla; cold is fine too.

Dana Reyes

Dana has cooked professionally for eleven years and has been testing recipes for Hearth & Thyme since 2019. She writes about weeknight cooking, slow breads, and the small techniques that quietly change a dish. Every recipe she publishes is cooked at least twice, in an ordinary home oven.