Last Updated on December 22, 2023 by Deliciously Organic
I love making recipes like this apple frangipane galette because it has healthier ingredients. With the holidays right around the corner, I want to share some tips for more successful baking with whole wheat flour and organic whole cane sugar.
If you want to use whole wheat pastry flour in a recipe that calls for white flour, it’s best to take a step back and look at the recipe. If it’s a cake, bar cookie or tart, you’ll probably get good results. As a rule of thumb, I use 1 1/4 cups of whole wheat pastry flour for every cup of white flour. I do this for two reasons. First, whole wheat pastry flour weighs less than white flour, and second, whole wheat pastry flour contains less gluten, so you’ll need a bit more to help your concoction hold together.
Cookies, pies and breads are much trickier to convert and will take a bit of experimenting. IÂ only use whole wheat flour (not pastry flour) for bread recipes and others which require a bit more structure. When converting a family cookie recipe, I usually have to find the right combination of whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour to ensure adequate gluten and a subtle taste. The process takes time and I don’t recommend it unless you enjoy trying a recipe 20 or more times to get it just right.
White sugar can be replaced 1:1 with organic whole cane sugar. I use whole cane sugar in any recipe that would also pair well with brown sugar – everything from cookies to cakes to pies. If you pulse it in a coffee grinder, it will turn to powder and substitute well for powdered sugar. Keep in mind that it does have a brown color so I wouldn’t use it in things like a meringue, or anything you want to look “white”.
Another trick I use is anytime a recipe calls for cornstarch I always substitute with arrowroot. Arrowroot is an odorless, fine white powder that makes a great thickener. I use it in place of cornstarch 1:1.
I’ve been having fun with all sorts of apple recipes this week and instead of giving you a pie, I thought I’d change things up a bit and give you a recipe for apple galette. Don’t be intimidated, a galette is basically an open-faced pie without all the fuss. You simply roll out your dough, smear in the frangipane (a fancy name for an incredible paste made of ground almonds, butter, honey, eggs, and cream), layer your apples, and then fold the crust around the edges. The galette isn’t too sweet, but rustic with a flaky-buttery dough and a subtle sweetness from the apples and frangipane. You can serve it with a dallop of whipped cream or creame fraiche.
Apple Frangipane Galette
Inspired by David Lebovitz book, Ready For Dessert
Frangipane recipe from Tartelett (used with permission)
This recipe was published before I started publishing only grain-free recipes on my website. If you’d like to make this recipe grain-free, use this crust recipe.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
- Category: Dessert
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 1/2 cups sprouted whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup sprouted rice flour, plus 2 tablespoons
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour, plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
- 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
- 10 tablespoons ice water
For the Filling:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 cup ground almonds
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
For the Apples:
- 5 medium apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin
- 2 tablespoons organic whole cane sugar
- 1/2 cup whipped cream or creme fraiche (optional)
Instructions
- Place pastry flour, brown rice flour, tapioca flour, and salt in a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Add butter and pulse until it looks like wet sand, about 8 (1-second) pulses. Add 10 tablespoons of ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse after each ad- dition. Pulse until dough gathers into larger clumps. The dough should not be crumbly. If it is, add a tablespoon or two of water. Divide dough into 2 portions and wrap plastic wrap around each piece, pressing firmly to form into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and adjust rack to middle position. While the crust is in the fridge whisk together the butter, honey, almonds and eggs until blended. Fold in the cream.
- After the dough is cold, roll one disk out on a floured surface into a 12-inch disk. Transfer the disk to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (it might hang over the sides a bit, but this is ok). Spoon and spread frangipane on crust leaving a 3-inch border. Layer the apples on top of the frangipane and then fold the edges over. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of whole cane sugar. Bake for 45-55 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm (and with a dollop of whipped cream or creme fraiche if you like).
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Makes 2 pie crusts
Carrie, your apple galette looks amazing. This rustic dessert is so pretty & I love that it is open faced. Thanks for all of those baking tips, very helpful conversions. xo
This recipe is beautiful. I can’t wait to give it a try!
Remember we found Non GMO cornstarch at Whole Foods and EarthFare when we were shooting your book.
I think tastebuds matter a lot too, for me arrowroot leaves behind an off flavor but not cornstarch so I don’t use arrowroot. Looks like we’ll have diversity in our book then 🙂
haha…That’s funny that we have opposite views on the taste!
hi! i’m new to your blog and i just love, love, love it. i’ve been buying more and more organic stuff over the last year, and just recently started getting in to baking with organic ingredients, so this is so helpful! thanks for the great tips!
Carrie – yum! I just got a bag of apples in my organic home delivery box, too! I appreciate the tip on arrow root – I never considered that cornflour might be GM … I’ll have to check 🙂
I also wanted to let you know that yours is my Blog of the Week at Easy Peasy Organic! You’ll have to check it out – my kudos to you, girl, for your wonderful site! 🙂
A xx
I adore anything to do with apples or pumpkins at this time of the year. This looks mouth watering. Your whole cane sugar reminds me of sucanat. Is there a difference?
Organic whole cane sugar and sucanat are basically the same thing and can be used interchangeably. Sucanat is usually a bit more coarse than whole cane sugar, but a few pulses in a coffee grinder takes that problem away.
such a delicious dessert! and easy to make too! the only thing that i didn’t understand was that the recipe would yield two galettes (for some reason reading that it yields two crusts didn’t make sense in my mind, haha). it was mildly sweet which i loved. do you have any tips on making this gluten free?
Thanks for bringing this up. It’s always so helpful when others point out better ways I can write the instructions. The crust recipe makes 2 crusts, not 2 galettes. Sorry for the confusion. The crust makes 2 crusts. You can use one for the galette and then put one away in the fridge or freezer for later. I’ll make sure and write that in the instructions. If you want to make this a gf crust you can use Helen’s recipe here: http://www.mytartelette.com/2010/08/recipe-peach-blueberry-lemon-thyme.html It’s a fabulous gf crust that would go very well with the galette. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
thanks! although, this recipe did end up making two galettes for me. perhaps i didn’t make them as large as yours, but i definitely had enough of the frangipane and enough apples to make two galettes, with apples and frangipane leftover. so for me, the recipe made two crusts and two galettes. i’ll check out that GF crust, thank you!
Thanks much for the great info on conversion with whole wheat party flour. For a long time now, I’ve gotten in the habit of substituting 1/2 the amount of white flour with WWPF or a white whole wheat flour and its yielded excellent results. Going to 100% whole wheat is tough though!
I can’t wait to make this galette. Ate it at a friend’s house last fall and haven’t stopped thinking about it – can’t wait for apple season. Great site!