Spiced Apple Crostata

A rustic fall crostata, or open-faced fruit tart, featuring a flaky, cinnamon crust and filled with brown sugar and fresh apples. It’s perfect topped with a simple, homemade molasses glaze and vanilla ice cream.

This recipe is sponsored by B&G Foods, Inc as a part of their #bakingathome and #cookwithcrisco campaign. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the businesses who support Gathered At My Table!

It’s officially fall. The leaves are turning from emerald greens to deep oranges and reds, the temperature is beginning to drop and we’re heading inside to sit by the fire with warm bowls of soup, and I’m baking. I’m baking cookies and cakes, breads and brownies, and of course, I’m tucking the last of my orchard apples into dough.

This week, I’m sharing a super simple recipe for this rustic spiced apple crostata featuring Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening, Spice Islands® Ground Saigon Cinnamon, and Grandma’s® Molasses. It features a flaky, cinnamon-spiced crust, filled with brown sugar and apples and finished with a sweet molasses glaze and it’s just one of the coziest recipes you’ll make this fall!

what is a crostata?

A crostata is the Italian term for an open-faced fruit tart. You’ve probably more familiar with the French translation, galette, but they are the same thing. A sheet of flaky pie dough, filled with some sort of fruit or produce, and then edges are folded up and around the filling to create a little crust barrier and hold all of the fruit inside. I love making galettes and crostatas because they are SO VERSATILE. You can fill them with anything you want—sweet or savory—, they are quick and easy to make, and the rustic, free-form shape is sure to make an impression at your table.

the crust

For this recipe, I slightly adapted my basic pie dough to create an ultra-flaky cinnamon spiced crust. I used flour, a little sugar, and replaced half of the butter with Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening. Shortening is made up of 100% fat while butter is made up of 80% fat and 20% water. Shortening also has a higher melting point, which helps prevent spread and contributes to rise in baked goods. In this recipe, it makes for extra flaky layers plus is a plant-based fat which is helpful when baking for friends with differing dietary restrictions. I also swirled in some Spice Islands Ground Saigon Cinnamon for an added cozy flavor.

ingredients you need to make this spiced apple crostata:

• Flour. It’s the base of all our baked goods and we’re using regular, all-purpose, unbleached flour for this recipe.

• Sugar. For just a little added sweetness, we’re using just 2 tsp of granulate sugar.

• Salt. Always salt. It helps to balance the sweetness and draw out the other flavors in the dish.

• Spice Islands Ground Saigon Cinnamon. High-quality, finely-ground cinnamon for that warm fall flavor. Find it here.

• Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening. A 100% plant-based fat, shortening is the key to our super flaky crust. Get it here.

• Butter. I use a little bit of unsalted butter in partnership with the shortening in this recipe for a bit of added flavor. If you’re making this recipe completely plant-based, you can omit the butter and replace it with more shortening.

• Ice Water. Cold ice water helps moisten the pie dough, hydrate the flour, and bind everything together. We just use 3-4 tbsp, until the dough begins to come together.

• Brown Sugar. A thin layer of brown sugar at the base of the crostata creates a bubbly caramel bed for the apples.

• Apples. I used a mix of different types of apples found at my local apple orchard. Use your favorite type of apple, or a mix, very thinly sliced.

• Grandma’s® Molasses. Unsulfured, preservative-free molasses makes for a sweet, somewhat smoky glaze. Get it here.

• Powdered Sugar. You’ll need 1/4 cup for this recipe.

• Heavy Cream. Just a splash or two to loosen the glaze.

Yield one 9" crostata

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

30 Min

Cook time

30 Min

Inactive time

1 Hour

Total time

2 Hour

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Spiced Apple Crostata

A rustic fall crostata, or open-faced fruit tart, featuring a flaky, cinnamon crust and filled with brown sugar and fresh apples. It’s perfect topped with a simple, homemade molasses glaze and vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

for the crust

• 1 1/4 cups (156 g) all purpose flour
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp Spice Islands Ground Saigon Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup (56 g) cold butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup (46 g) Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening, cold
• 3-4 tbsp ice water

for the filling and glaze

• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 3-4 medium apples, thinly sliced
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/4 cup (60 g) powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp Grandma’s Molasses
• 1-2 tbsp heavy cream

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
2. Add the cold, cubed shortening and butter and work with your fingertips, until all of the fat is broken down into pea-sized pieces and the mixture is crumbly.
3. Add 3 tbsp of ice water and toss to hydrate. Add another tablespoon of water and turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured work surface. Knead gently until the dough comes together and no flour spots remain.
4. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, and chill for at least an hour.
5. When the dough has chilled, roll it out on a floured surface or a sheet of parchment paper to a circle about 10" in diameter. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
7. Spread the brown sugar in an even layer over the surface of the dough, leaving about 2" around the edges. Arrange the thinly sliced apples over the brown sugar.
8. Fold the outer edges of the crust up to create a border around the fruit and brush the edges of the crust with the beaten egg.
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the crust is deeply browned and the filling is soft and bubbly. Let cool slightly.
10. To make the glaze, whisk together molasses, powdered sugar, and heavy cream until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle the glaze over the warm crostata just before serving.

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Double Strawberry Galettes

Farmer’s market strawberries are tucked into homemade pie crust to make these miniature double strawberry galettes. Serve with macerated strawberries and vanilla ice cream for an easy, summer dessert.

Galettes are my very favorite summer dessert and I don’t care who knows it!

As I was brainstorming for this recipe, I had a bit of a culinary revelation. Galettes are best in the summer and pies are best in the fall—here is why. In the summer, fruit is amazing! We have bright, juicy berries, plump peaches, dark plums, sweet (and tart cherries). We get blessed with nature’s candy for a few months out of the year and I don’t want to do anything to cover up those flavors. This is where galettes come in. In the galette application, pie crust is basically just there to be a convenient vessel for piles of fruit. It’s crispy and buttery and complementary, but doesn’t take away from the main event.

Pies on the other hand, are where you want a lot of crust. In my humble opinion, fall and winter fruits need a bit of support to shine. Apples are always better basted with spices and pears like to be poached in wine. They need the tender layers of a pie crust to help round everything out.

Anyway, that’s my little speech and it might be a hill I’m ready to die on. You probably won’t catch me making any pies this summer, but galettes will be plentiful.

how to make homemade flaky pie crust

Making a good homemade pie crust is fairly simple, but needs practice. I follow Erin McDowell’s general pie technique and have found it works perfectly every time. Here’s how it works:

1. Toss together your dry ingredients. I like to use a blend of all purpose flour and cake flour because I find it gives a little extra flakiness. You could also use 100% all purpose, or 100% pastry flour, no problem. There’s also a little salt and a little sugar added.

2. Add cubed cold butter. I follow two steps when adding the butter. First, I add all of the butter cubes to the bowl and gently toss it with my fingers so that each piece of butter gets dusted in flour. Then, using my thumbs and forefingers, I flatten each butter cube. When all of the butter has been flattened, I use my finger tips to gently break the pieces down until they are the size of large peas or black beans.

3. Add the ice water. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and drizzle in a few tablespoons of ice water. Most pie recipes call for a range of water to be added—always start on the low end and add more if needed. Toss gently with your fingertips, just to hydrate the dough and then begin to knead gently, adding more water if needed. The dough is ready when you can squeeze a clump in your hand and it stays together when you open your hand.

4. Wrap and chill. Turn your crumbly dough onto a work surface and use the heel of your hand to gently press it into a disc. Your disc should have no dry pockets of flour and you should still be able to see pieces of butter threaded throughout. Wrap it tightly and chill it for at least an hour. Most doughs shrink because they haven’t been sufficiently chilled so give it some time—overnight is best.

tips for making the best summer fruit galettes

I used the most beautiful farmer’s market strawberries for this recipe, but the best thing about galettes is that you can use any fruit you’d like! Here are some tips to make your galettes shine every time.

• Taste your fruit! Natural sweetness varies from fruit to fruit, so taste yours and then adjust the amount of sugar accordingly. In my personal opinion, not much is needed so I usually start with a tablespoon and then add more if needed.

• Add a bit a of cornstarch. Galette juices can be a bit runny, so adding a teaspoon or so of cornstarch will help thicken things up.

• Save some macerated fruit for topping. That’s where the double strawberry part comes in for this recipe. Reserve some of the macerated fruit and spoon it on top of your galettes (along with ice cream) for maximum summer fruit flavor!

Yield: one large galette (9") or four individual galettes

Author: Anna Ramiz

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Double Strawberry Galettes

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 30 MinInactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 2 Hour

Farmer’s market strawberries are tucked into homemade pie crust to make these miniature double strawberry galettes. Serve with macerated strawberries and vanilla ice cream for an easy, summer dessert.

Ingredients

for the pie crust

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (82 g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (70 g) cake flour
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, cold
• 4 tbsp of ice water

for the strawberry galettes

• 1 batch pie dough, recipe included
• 1 lb fresh strawberries
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• Egg wash
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Instructions

to make the pie crust

1. Cube butter and place in a bowl in the freezer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cake flour, sugar, and salt.
3. Add the butter cubes to the bowl with the dry ingredients and toss them to coat. Using your thumbs and forefinger, flatten each butter piece and begin to work them into the dough until they are the size of black beans. When all of the butter has has been broken dough, make a well in the center of the bowl.
4. Add 3 tbsp of ice water to the bowl and use your fingertips gently toss the mixture until combined. Begin gently kneading the dough, taking care not to overwork it, and adding another tablespoon of water if needed. To test if the dough is moist enough, grab a handful and squeeze it together. If the dough stays clumped together when you open your hand, your dough is ready. If not, add a bit more water and knead a little more.
5. Turn your dough onto a clean work surface and use the heel of your hand to continue gently kneading until there are no more dry patches of flour, but streaks of butter are still visible.
6. Press dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least an hour.
7. When the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured work surface until it is about 1/4” thick.
8. If making one large galette: roll the dough into a circle, roughly 10” in diameter.
9. If making miniature galettes: use a ring or cake pan to cut four 6” circles out of the dough.
10. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and return to the refrigerator until you are ready to fill and bake.

to make the galettes

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
2. Remove the green stems from the strawberries and quarter them. Place berries in a large bowl and toss with sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice until all of the berries are well-coated. Let rest for 15 minutes.
3. For one large galette: Spoon half of the berry mixture onto the center of your prepared pie crust, leaving at least 1” border around the edge. Fold the edges of the galette up and over the fruit and press to seal. Brush the edges with egg wash and sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
4. For miniature galettes: Spoon about 1/4 cup of berry mixture into the center of each pie crust and fold the edges up and over the fruit. Press to seal and then brush with egg wash and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
5. Bake the galettes for 25-28 minutes, until the crust is deeply golden brown and the fruit mixture is bubbling.
6. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Serve with vanilla ice cream and a spoonful of the remaining macerated berries.

Notes:

You can substitute any summer fruit that you enjoy in place of strawberries. I recommended tasting your fruit and then adjusting the sugar levels based on the natural sweetness of your fruit.

Pie crust can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer for up to a week or in the freeze for 3 months.

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