apple + sage buckwheat galette | salted honey labneh

I am pretty certain that apple pie is the first food I had a crush on. This time of year when I was around 8 years old and we would go visit my grandparents, my grandmother would always makes two apple pies. One for me, and one for everyone else. She took quick notice of my love for apple pie. My grandmother loved that I loved to eat, and that I could eat a lot. She was 100% Italian, and I am convicend that Italians have it in their blood to feed people massive quantities of good homemade food. In her eyes, the more I ate, the healthier I was, even if that meant eating three bologna sandwiches for lunch. I definitely inherited her Italian need to feed people, and do I love a table filled with food, and people who love to eat. 

My apple pie crush followed me through college until today. A couple times during the school year, my mom would drive 5 hours to my university in upstate NY to drop off homemade food and groceries for me and my roommates. She too had that Italian need to feed people, and was always so worried that we weren't eating enough homemade meals, so much so that she would drive all that way just to deliver food. Every time she made that trip, you know that there was always an apple pie there. My mom knew that apple pie was the key to my heart. 

Despite my long time love for apple pie, I have never posted an apple pie recipe here. I think mostly because when I make apple pie, I like to go as traditional as possible and use all of the gluten and butter, and my blog  is a place where I like to creatively use healthier ingredients in lieu of the gluten and dairy. So, this recipe is my compromise. I used buckwheat flour, in addition to regular white flour, which enhances the apple flavor and ups the nutritional value a little. I left the butter in, because, I believe crust is the exception to my minimal butter use. You can always use a vegan butter if you want to make this dairy free, and a gluten-free flour blend works well here in place of white flour. I did use a less refined coconut palm sugar in this recipe, which in my opinion, worked even better for sweetening up the apples. Studded with sage and pistachios, this to me will always be what October and November are all about.

apple + sage buckwheat galette | salted honey labneh

Labneh (a thick, strained yogurt) is optional for serving with this galette. I would highly recommend it because it is so delicious, but it does take about a day of advanced planning. A day or two before you are going to serve the galette, you will want to start straining the yogurt. You also need to make sure you have cheesecloth on hand for the straining. If you don't have time or cheesecloth, you can also just make a salted honey yogurt (by skipping the straining and just adding the salt and honey to plain, greek yogurt). Alternatively, you can skip yogurt all-together and serve with your favorite ice cream. 

MAKES
8 slices

INGREDIENTS

for the labneh:
1 cup of 2% pain greek yogurt
1 tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon of maldon sea salt or kosher salt

for the crust:
1 cup of all-purpose white flour (plus a couple of tablespoons to roll out the dough)
1/2 cup of buckwheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 cup (typically one stick) of very cold sliced butter
1/2 cup of water with ice

for the apple filling:
3 apples, cored, halved, and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons of coconut palm sugar (or regular white sugar)
a pinch of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of pistachios, roughly chopped
5-6 sage leaves, roughly chopped

METHOD

A day or two before serving, prepare the labneh:

• Place a colander over a bowl, and drape a large piece of cheesecloth over the colander. Place the yogurt on top of the cheesecloth, and gather the edges to cover the yogurt. 
• Place in the fridge for 24-48 hours. Remove, and squeeze the cheesecloth tightly to strain any excess liquid from the yogurt. Stir in the salt and honey, and place in fridge, covered, until you're ready to serve. 

Make the dough, and chill for an hour:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. 
  Place the white flour, buckwheat flour and salt into a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the butter to the flour mixture, and incorporate the butter into the mixture by pressing the butter between you thumb and forefingers. I like this method because it creates long, flat butter pieces which makes for a flaky crust. Be sure not to handle the butter too much, and work quickly to incorporate the butter so it stays cold. When you're done, the butter should be evenly incorporated, but you will still see butter chunks in the flour. 
• Add a 1/3 cup of the ice water to the flour mixture, and work the dough into a ball. If it is not holding together, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, just until it sticks together. Again, try to handle the dough as little as possible. 
• Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for no less than 1 hour. You can also do this a couple of days in advance. 

While the dough is done chilling, prepare the apples:

• Place the sliced apples, sugar, salt, and cinnamon into a bowl and toss gently to coat the apples evenly with the mixture. 

Roll out the dough, assemble the galette and bake:

• Place a piece of parchment paper onto a flat surface, and dust with about a tablespoon of flour. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap, and place it onto the parchment and roll into about a 12" circle. 
• Arrange the apples however you like, starting from the center of the dough and work your way out reserving a few inches around the edges. Fold the sides in by taking a section of dough and folding it over halfway, and then folding over again to touch the edge of the apples, creating about a 2" border. Sprinkle the pistachios and sage all over. 
• Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the dough is cooked, and the edges are browned. Carefully cut into slices, and serve warm with a spoonful of the labneh on the side.