Sarah Loves Salad

After making so many tomato galettes this summer, I was so happy to see Claudia Flemming’s Apple Crumb Crostata recipe featured about two weeks ago. I made it for the first time this weekend for my Friendsgiving and I’m planning to make it again, instead of apple pie, on Thanksgiving for my family. In spite of the fact that the instructions are somewhat long, I think it’s less work than an apple pie and it’s also light, tart, and refreshing which is something that’s appreciated in my family after a long Thanksgiving meal.

I’ve made a few small tweaks to the recipe, I used Erin McDowell’s Perfect Pie Crust, rather than Claudia’s, it’s a little simpler, and it’s become a no fail crust for me and I peeled and chopped the apples and made the crust about 24 hours in advance, which I do because I think it allows the crust to chill properly and also because it allows the apples to macerate which I prefer to do and then drain rather than to use cornstarch.

So I a little bit of a preamble here. I’ve always made pie crust the old-fashioned way with a pastry cutter and my hands. No real reason for this, just, it’s the way my grandmother did it, and I live in a small Brooklyn apartment and I don’t have a Cuisinart because I wouldn’t use it for that much and it’s not worth the cabinet space it would take up.

When I’ve made galettes in the past, which I’ve made with some frequency — they are about half of the work all of the satisfaction of making a pie — I’ve made a single crust by hand with a pastry cutter and not thought much about it. However, last weekend, I watched Claire Saffiz make Pop Tarts from scratch and in watching her tests and trials, it got me thinking about the optimal galette crust.