Well if you are out here on the west coast of BC you will know that Fall/Autumn (so hard to choose just one saying for it!) has definitely come on strong this year. The leaves are falling in the brightest most beautiful hues of red, orange and yellow. The air is crisp and the scent of chimney fires wafts through the neighbourhood. The skies have been grey and the weather has been wet, so very true to our west coast fall climate. And I love it, love love love it. Did I mention I love it?!

I swear I should have been born in the fall or you would maybe think that I was the way I love this time of year so much. I suppose I am blessed to like the grey skies and rainy days (the most out of all days, honestly I am the most happy on a cold, wet, overcast, rainy day more so than any other day), especially living here on the coast. I know it is more common than not to deal with seasonal depression with the lack of sunshine we receive, and I do not take my love for this weather and where I live for granted as I know how tough it can be not to love it and to have it affect your mental health. My second most favourite kind of day is a crisp, cold, sunny fall day, go figure!

I always say I should have probably been born in England because we know how much that country loves their grey skies too. Besides the overcast of the English country side, I just love the Uk and Europe all together.. The accents, the architecture, the design, the food, the culture, they just have it going on. My dream one day is for Paul and I to split our time between here and the UK/Europe, retirement dreams, but hey it is never too early to dream am I right?!

I was at our local farmers market the other day when I saw a variety of apple I have never heard of. The Cox’s Orange Pippin apple, I can’t even say it without pronouncing it in my worst English accent. Anyways I snagged up a bundle and came home to make this here galette! Now you don’t have to use a cox orange pippin apple if you can’t find them (or maybe don’t like them, trust me, I am just as picky in my apple selection as the next best picky person), honey-crisp, Granny Smith, Braeburn or your other favourite baking apple will do.

This galette, as with most galettes, hardly needs a recipe and comes together in a cinch! I usually make my pastry by hand, this time though I used my food processor and honestly it was SO simple and SO easy and SO quick so really there is no excuse. Best served, in my opinion, warmed up with a scoop of ice cream xx

Maple cream cheese apple galette

pastry

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ tsp Himalayan salt

11 tablespoons unsalted butter

5-7 tablespoons cool water

Maple cream cheese:

1 cup cream cheese

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

3 tbsp of maple syrup

1 egg yolk

Apple Galette

3 baking apples sliced

1 egg whisked for pastry wash

1-2 tbsp turbinado sugar for sprinkling

cinnamon for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside

Pastry:

In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Slice the butter into pieces and then cut it into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or like me your fingers until a coarse meal texture is obtained.

Spoon 5-7 tablespoons of cold water over the flour, mixing gradually with a fork until the dough sticks together. You can add additional water by the tablespoon until the dough comes together but is not too sticky, or alternatively if it is too sticky already add a little bit more flour until you get the right consistency, i.e. not sticky. Form the dough into 1 ball, wrap it in a bees wax food wrap or plastic wrap (you should really invest in some bees wax wraps if you don’t already have any!)

Alternatively you can make the pastry dough in a food processor. Adding the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar to the processor and blitz, then add cubes of butter and blitz until the butter is fine in texture, slowly adding in tbsp’s of water until the dough comes together.

Place wrapped dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Maple cream cheese:

In a standing mixer add the cream cheese, vanilla, maple syrup and egg yolk and mix on medium/high until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Set aside

Putting the galette together:

Once the pastry has set in the fridge, flour a flat clean surface. Coat your rolling pin in a little extra flour, place the ball of dough in the middle of the floured surface and roll it evenly from the center to the edge, until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick. Place the rolled out dough on the parchment lined baking sheet.

Scoop the cream cheese mixture into the middle of the dough and spread out, leaving about 1 inch from the edge of the dough not covered (this is what you will fold over), then top with sliced apples. You can get fancy and keep the apple slices together like I did in the photos or just slice and layer on.

Fold the sides of the galette over the cream cheese and apples, covering the mixture by one inch. Wash the top of the pastry with the pre whisked egg wash, sprinkle with cinnamon and a couple of tbsp of turbinado sugar.

I highly recommend making sure to fill the galette on the parchment paper as moving it afterwards can be quite messy.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the apples and crust is golden browned. Cool for 5 minutes on the pan and then move them to a cooling rack.

I always reheat my galette in the oven before serving (either the whole thing if serving a party or slice by slice). At 350 for 15 minutes, then add a big scoop of ice cream!