Individual Apple Streusel Galettes

Yummy individual apple streusel galette
with a little heavy cream on the side

Sometimes you just want some apple pie for breakfast. Today is one of those days for me. I've made a full size galette before, but since I know I'm the only one who will want this today for breakfast, I made four individual galettes. I'll enjoy one for breakfast and then I will freeze the others for another time--or maybe I'll be generous and take some to my friends. We'll see. 
The crust of these galettes is what I think makes me love them: flaky, buttery, tender and perfect. The apples are just tender enough, sweet and tart; and the streusel ads another sweet, crisp element--unless of course you pour on some heavy cream, which is what I did. The heavy cream adds the creaminess of ice cream without more sugar, which this galette does not need. The cream cuts the sweetness just a bit and still gives you the creamy side element most of us like with our apple pie.
Ahh. A very satisfying breakfast indeeed.

Individual Apple Streusel Galettes

Streusel Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Filling Ingredients:

• 3 medium granny smith apples (or other combination of your favorite baking apples)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch kosher salt

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoon Crisco (vegetable shortening)
• 3-4 tablespoon ice cold water
• flour for dusting 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

For the streusel... in a medium bowl, mix the white sugar, graham crumbs and flour. Add sliced butter and toss to separate butter slices. With your fingers, gently smoosh the butter into the dry ingredients until butter is entirely incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand, with some clumps here and there. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.

For the filling... peel, core, and quarter the apples. Slice each quarter into 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices. Place all of the apple slices in a medium bowl, add the lemon juice, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt, and then fold gently to disperse the dry ingredients. Set aside while you prepare the crust.

For the crust... get two square pieces of wax paper. Place one on a flat surface for rolling, and lightly flour the wax paper. Then, in a medium bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until you have quarter-inch chunks of butter. Add the vegetable shortening and continue cutting until you have some sandy parts and some larger chunks of butter and shortening (a few quarter-inch chunks here and there--see pic below). Drizzle in the ice water and toss with a fork until the dough starts to clump. 

Then use your hands to gently knead the dough into a relatively cohesive mass--be careful not to over work the dough, or your crust will be tough. Turn out onto the lightly floured wax paper and cut into four equal portions. Working with one portion at a time, form the dough into a ball and place on a flour-dusted piece of wax paper. Sprinkle dough with more flour, cover iwht another layer of wax paper, and roll out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Carefully remove top layer of wax paper and transfer sheet of dough to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions of dough. They will likely overlap one another on the baking sheet, but that's okay, because you will fold up the edges of the dough.

Assembling the galette... Pour/scoop a fourth of the apples into the middle of each dough circle, leaving about 2 inches apple-free. Try to make sure the top of the apple mound is slightly flattened so that it can hold more streusel. Carefully scoop some streusel all over the apple mound. Now, fold up the dough edges to form rough pleats around the edge. Press lightly to make sure the pleats hold. Repeat with all galettes and arrange them on the pan so they are rather equidistant from each other.

Bake galettes at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until nicely browned and a knife inserted into the center meets little resistance. Check the galettes about halfway through baking. If the streusel seems to be browning too quickly, place a piece of aluminum foil on top without pressing down--just let it sit there on top.

When done, remove from oven and allow to cool for 20-30 minutes before serving. 

Makes 4-8 servings, depending on who's enjoying them.
Serve with a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream or ice cream, if desired.

Freeze leftovers. To reheat, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place frozen galette on parchment lined baking sheet and reheat for about 20-25 minutes, or until hot and crisp.