From my little yoga perch on the patio, I can see our apple tree in the corner of the garden perfectly. Most mornings, as I sit to breathe + welcome the day, the deer pay the tree a little visit – munching on the lowest hanging fruit. Over the summer, the little green orbs have grown and swelled, blushing in the sun until, over the past few days, they’re shining red – revealing their abundance to me. I can tell that fall is coming because the top of the tree is covered with little red orbs of sweetness, but there are barely any patches of jolly fruits dangling in the eyeline of the deer (though they still come and wait by the tree each morning, waiting for a few fruits to fall.) At last, it’s my turn to gorge on them. (HA!)
I had the pleasure of working with TopSpin Studios this week to create a little video passion project – of theirs and mine. About sport, food + connectivity. Plucking apples from our very prosperous tree and turning them into something sweet felt like the right way to tell this story — about how tuning in, keeping it local, and using all of our senses as athletes makes our adventures complete. The effort and the finished product were a little sweet treat to soothe our senses on a chilly fall day, and unwinding my mind and hands with a little sensory project was exactly what I needed. The opportunity to spend a bit of time rolling dough, filling the kitchen with caramel and apple smells, poofs of flour as I rolled the crust, and oohs + aaahs as we sliced up the galette and ate it with ice cream in the middle of the afternoon. And so, this Caramelized Backyard Apple Galette was born – the first pie-like dessert of the new season, and very worth sharing with you here.
There’s something deeply satisfying about whipping up a galette in my opinion. It’s not that the ingredients are complicated, or even decadent. But pulling it from the oven and slicing it open is to say that you took the time to carefully make the components, and that is a luxury that we don’t all have all the time. But it’s a splurge worth having, and enjoying, friends. Add to that the deep satisfaction of picking the apples from a tree you know and, well, you’re literally eating up a season that necessitates a slowing down, a turning in, and begs us to occupy ourselves with soothing tasks to balance out the hot and heaviness of summer with restorative introspection.
It’s not every week that I have the time to make such a special treat, but you’d better believe that the next time I see the window I’ll make it happen. Few things bring me as much joy as taking the time, and exceptional ingredients, to present something so special — even if it’s just to myself.
I wasn’t sure what variety of apples I had on our tree. I’m still not. And it was glorious. Ordinarily, I would have a highly specific recommendation for what kind of apples to use – because not all apples are created equally, some are more tart, or sweet, or crisp or firm. And that’s important because it does impact the flavor and texture of your finished products. But, in this particular case, I can’t more highly recommend using whatever apples you have. Particularly if you have an apple tree that’s dripping with fruit. Or maybe you know someone with a tree – a neighbor or friend – and this is the perfect place for these sorts of apples; the kinds that you know aren’t crabs, but are oddly and perfectly shaped, greens and reds, firm, crunchy and tart and all the flavors in between.
In this case, the strategy of “any apples at all” works because you’re going to cook up the apples in a little hot tub of caramelized sugar which will make literally any apple taste like a million dollars.
I hope that this one inspires you to take a little extra time for yourself, to soothe your soul with a cooking project, to slip into this season of coziness + downshifting with a little flour and butter, and that fat slices of this beauty fill your weekend with all the senses of the season.
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