Mincemeat Apple Galette
I make a lot of galettes – which sound fancy, but are really free form pies you assemble and bake on a sheet without needing to trim or crimp – and in the fall and winter, they’re often apple ones. Sometimes, I spread some jam onto the bottom of the crust before I pile on the apples, but a couple weeks ago I had a jar of mincemeat on the counter and inspiration struck. It turned out to be a very good idea.
I adore mincemeat – a thick sort of preserve of fresh and dried fruits, citrus, brown sugar, booze (if you want it) and spices you can simmer on the stovetop until your house smells fantastic (it only takes 20 minutes, really) or buy in the jar without shame. (The smell of a jar of Robertson’s all-fruit mincemeat reminds me so much of my grandma, I nearly tear up when I take off the lid.) You don’t need suet (which is beef fat) – I grate in some butter once the mince has cooled down, so that it’s evenly distributed as it hangs out in the fridge or freezer.
But! I digress… this is about galette, and you can use a layer of mincemeat if you like. Because it’s so intense, it’s usually relegated to tarts, but it works well distilled with apples, which I thinly slice without peeling – a galette bakes in about half the time of a full-on pie.
This is perfectly suitable for breakfast too, by the way – I default to an all-butter crust, which is a little sturdier, and makes for a flaky pie you can also eat by the slice out of hand. Happy holidays!
Mincemeat Apple Galette
AuthorJulie
To make the pastry, combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Slice or cut the butter into chunks, or grate it using the coarse side of a box grater into the flour and blend it in with a fork, pastry blender or your fingers, rubbing any larger chunks of fat until the fat is partially blended in, with some larger chunks remaining (no larger than a blueberry).
Add the water and stir until the dough comes together. Gather it up into a ball, pat into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for half an hour, or up to a few days. (Freeze for longer storage.)
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F. On a lightly floured surface, roll your pastry out to a rough circle about 10-12 inches in diameter—I do this directly on a silicone mat. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the sugar and cinnamon. Spread the mincemeat onto the bottom of the pastry, leaving an inch or so around the edge. Pile the apples on top, arranging and overlapping the slices if you like, and then fold the edge of the pastry over to enclose the fruit, folding it wherever it naturally folds. If you like, dot the fruit with butter, brush the edge of the pastry with milk or cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and bubbling and the juices appear thicker, and no longer cloudy. Cool to warm before slicing and serving with ice cream or whipped cream. Serves 6-8.
Ingredients
Directions
To make the pastry, combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Slice or cut the butter into chunks, or grate it using the coarse side of a box grater into the flour and blend it in with a fork, pastry blender or your fingers, rubbing any larger chunks of fat until the fat is partially blended in, with some larger chunks remaining (no larger than a blueberry).
Add the water and stir until the dough comes together. Gather it up into a ball, pat into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for half an hour, or up to a few days. (Freeze for longer storage.)
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F. On a lightly floured surface, roll your pastry out to a rough circle about 10-12 inches in diameter—I do this directly on a silicone mat. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the sugar and cinnamon. Spread the mincemeat onto the bottom of the pastry, leaving an inch or so around the edge. Pile the apples on top, arranging and overlapping the slices if you like, and then fold the edge of the pastry over to enclose the fruit, folding it wherever it naturally folds. If you like, dot the fruit with butter, brush the edge of the pastry with milk or cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and bubbling and the juices appear thicker, and no longer cloudy. Cool to warm before slicing and serving with ice cream or whipped cream. Serves 6-8.
Hi Julie. Could you give us your recipe for the homemade mince. Hubby and I love it but have to watch our cholesterol these days.
So if I could sub the suet with somethibg healthier that would be awesome. Years ago when the kids were little I made a great homemade mincemeat from green tomatoes. Don’t know if I still have that recipe somewhere. Thanks for all the great recipes. Merry Christmas from Okotoks!
sure thing, here it is! – https://www.dinnerwithjulie.com/2013/12/10/homemade-fruit-mincemeat/
I use my Grandmother’s mincemeat recipe. She was Scottish and I don’t know if she brought it with her when she came to Canada. I never thought to ask her . It makes a number of quarts of mincemeat which last me several years as I can them up. My question for you is her recipe uses suet and yours doesn’t. What difference would that make ? Her recipe is so tasty !
Love your radio program. It’s always interesting.
Merry Christmas !
Bonnie Becker, Medicine Hat, Alberta lesbon@telus.net
That sounds amazing, and thank you! I use butter instead of suet – it’s still fat, but has better flavour, I think! Merry Christmas!
Thanks for your reply, Julie ! I just have one more thought for you. You use butter instead of suet in your mincemeat. If I substitute butter for the suet (3 lbs. of suet !) would I use the same amount of butter – 3 lbs. ? That just sounds like so much !! My recipe makes anywhere from 8 to 10 quarts of mincemeat which I can up and it lasts for several years depending on how much baking I do each year.
Really love your radio show! Both my husband and I listen to it. Happy New Year, and we look forward to future radio shows !!
Bonnie Becker
Sorry for the slow reply!! That does sound like a lot!! It makes sense to use the same quantity of fat, but it doesn’t add anything structurally to the recipe, so I’d say you could cut it back by a half, anyway!
Thanks, Julie ! That’s what I was hoping you’d say ! I’ll make a note on my mincemeat recipe to use butter instead of suet, and to use about 1/2 the quantity that I used of suet.
I appreciate you answering my email. And later is not a problem as we all had a Christmas season in there, too !
Happy New Year !
Thanks Julie for this wonderful recipe here. I liked it and gonna try this in my next kitchen experiments. I’m working as a nanny in Dubai in a family where I’m taking care of two kids. They love new items every weekend, so I would like to know can you give some suggestions to add to this to make this a kids special thing?
I really appreciate any help you offer 🙂
Regards,
Jenny M
Nanny at HousekeepingCo ( https://www.housekeepingco.com )
I highly appreciate your hard-working skills as the post you published have some great information which is quite beneficial for me, I hope you will post more like that in the future
Thanks Julie for this wonderful recipe here. Thank you for sharing Nice explantation.
I haven’t made this yet, but really look forward to making it ! Thanks Julie !!
Thank you for sharing Nice explantation. and wonderful recipe
That’s look so good! I gonna try to do it right now.