From-scratch apple galette is as delicious as apple pie, but half the time and work! This easy yet impressive fall dessert is complete with a thick and flaky homemade all-butter crust and a drizzle of salted caramel. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the ultimate indulgence!
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos and more helpful success tips.
If you love my salted caramel apple pie, you’re in for a real treat today! We’re making a simple apple galette that’s exactly 97% easier than pie (I did the math ;)).
My galette crust, which is both flaky and buttery, makes a cozy bed for the warm and tender apple slices, which get tucked in nice and snug. The apples within are coated in brown-sugared, cinnamon-spiced goodness. Is this easy fall dessert enjoyment or what?!
There’s a lot to cover today, so let’s dive in.
One reader, Danica, commented: “Wow, this was extremely easy and just as delicious as your pies! Thank you for my new go-to recipe! Can’t get enough of your caramel sauce… so yummy! ★★★★★“
Why You Need to Make a Galette
Galettes are a wonderful alternative to pie when, you know, you don’t feel like making an actual pie. Have you ever made one before? Strawberry peach galette, berry galette, blueberry galette, apple brie phyllo galette, and ginger pear galette are some of my favorites.
Galettes are delicious, approachable, and best of all: low maintenance. I like to call them “lazy pies” because there’s no complicated shaping involved. Just as delicious and awesome as pie, but there’s no weaving, crimping, trimming, or any of that meticulousness business.
They’re essentially free-form pies, and you really can’t mess this up. If you can fold dough over filling, you can make a galette. The best part is that you’ll receive heart-eyed reactions anytime you serve an elaborate-looking galette, as if you spent all day creating something so beautifully scrumptious.
Same story with my mini fruit galettes, too!
Here’s everything you need:
Here’s How to Make My BEST Apple Galette Dough
The base of today’s galette is a buttery, flaky crust made from simple ingredients like flour, butter, and ice-cold water. This is actually the same dough we use to make pear tarte tatin. Have you ever tried my all-butter pie crust recipe? This galette dough is similar, but it’s *slightly* sweeter and yields only 1 crust. You can also use 1 of the crusts from my flaky pie crust recipe instead (that recipe yields 2 crusts).
I love how thick today’s crust is… think multiple flaky, buttery layers of crust enveloping sweet, cinnamon-y apples. Perfectly delectable!
Make the dough, then chill it before rolling it out and adding the filling. When you roll out galette dough, don’t worry if it’s not a perfect circle. Leave whatever shape it rolls out to be.
(How fun is it to have so few baking rules today?!)
Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling it out.
Apple Galette Filling
The filling for this apple galette combines fall’s favorite spices: cinnamon and nutmeg. You’ll also add brown sugar for sweetness, lemon juice for brightness (it tastes a little flat without it!), and 3–4 peeled, sliced apples. Unlike pies where you can pile the fillings super high, galettes don’t really like it when there’s too much filling. The crust will become mushy and no amount of oven time can save it. Plus, you won’t have enough pie dough to fold over an over-filled galette!
Whenever I make apple pie bars, apple pie, or even apple cake, I always use 2 different kinds of apples for more depth of flavor (half sweet, half tart). For a detailed list of my favorite apple varieties and when to use each, you can visit my post on The Best Apples for Baking.
Success Tip: Keep the filling flat and compact, while leaving a 2–3-inch border so you can fold the edges over.
Brush the crust’s edges with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar, such as Sugar in the Raw, or something like these coarse sugar sprinkles.
Success Tip: Chill the shaped galette for at least 15–20 minutes before baking to ensure it holds its shape. I usually do this while the oven preheats. It’s also plenty of time to whip up a batch of salted caramel!
Optional Salted Caramel
For an apple galette upgrade, drizzle homemade salted caramel on top of the apple filling before baking.
If you haven’t tried my salted caramel recipe before, now is the perfect opportunity. You need 4 easy ingredients and it takes about 10 minutes on the stove. No candy thermometer needed! You can also use it as a dip for apples, drizzle it on ice cream or pound cake, and more. In fact, here are 50+ ways to use salted caramel.
Today’s galette doesn’t take very long to bake and there’s no waiting for it to cool completely before serving. There’s only about 45 minutes between baking and eating. (Compare that to 5+ hours waiting for a pie to cook and cool!) Slice and serve with a scoop of ice cream and more salted caramel.
More Recipes With Apples
- Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake
- Baked Apples
- Apple Pie Bars (with Salted Caramel on top!)
- Apple Crumb Cake
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Homemade Caramel Apples
- Apple Cobbler
- Apple Turnovers
Easy Apple Galette
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 galette; about 8 servings
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
As delicious and impressive as pie, but half the time and work! This simple apple galette is a favorite fall dessert. Assembling it couldn’t be easier, and there’s no need to wait hours for it to cool before slicing. Prepare your dough at least 1 hour ahead of time, so it has time to chill in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for work surface
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) cold unsalted butter, cubed*
- 1/4 cup (60ml) ice-cold water, plus more as needed
- egg wash: 1 large egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
- optional: coarse sugar
Filling
- 3–4 apples, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch slices (about 4–5 cups (500–600g) slices)*
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons (12g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- optional: salted caramel sauce
Instructions
- Make the crust: Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl. Using a pastry cutter or 2 forks, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse pea-sized crumbs. Add the water and stir until the flour is moistened. Add 1–2 more Tablespoons of water if the dough seems dry. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and, using your hands, work the dough into a ball. Flatten it into a thick disc. Wrap the dough disc in plastic wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour, and up to 3 days.
- As the dough chills, prepare the filling: Mix the apples, brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a large bowl. Cover tightly and let sit until the dough is ready. I usually cover it and keep it in the refrigerator during this time.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Clear some shelf space in your refrigerator because the shaped galette must chill in step 6. (See recipe Note below.)
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 12-inch circle—it doesn’t have to be perfect. Transfer dough to the prepared baking sheet. (You can also roll the dough out right on the parchment paper or silicone baking mat that you are using to line the baking pan. If doing so, lightly flour the parchment paper or baking mat.)
- Arrange the apples (and any juices from the bottom of the bowl) into the center of the dough, leaving a 2–3-inch border all around them. You can simply spoon the filling on, or arrange the apple slices in a more deliberate design, such as concentric circles. Gently fold the edges of the dough over the filling, overlapping the dough as necessary. Press gently to seal the edges. Brush the crust edges generously with egg wash and sprinkle the crust with coarse sugar, if desired. If desired, drizzle 3 Tablespoons of salted caramel over the filling (not the crust).
- Refrigerate the shaped galette for at least 15–20 minutes as the oven preheats (next step), and up to 8 hours. If refrigerating for longer than 1–2 hours, cover it lightly. The galette will lose its shape if it’s not cold when it hits the oven.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Bake until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden brown, about 35–36 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. If desired, serve with vanilla ice cream and more salted caramel sauce drizzled on top.
- Cover and store leftover galette in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Both the dough and filling can be made ahead of time and chilled in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months after preparing it in step 1. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling out and filling.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Pastry Cutter | Rubber Spatula | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Rolling Pin | Pastry Brush | Coarse Sugar Sprinkles
- Butter: Make sure your cubed butter is very cold. I like to chill it in the freezer for about 15 minutes ahead of time.
- Apples: You can use any apple variety, but here are my favorites for galettes: Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, or Fuji. For a detailed list of my favorite apple varieties and when to use each, you can visit my post on The Best Apples for Baking.
- Chilling shaped galette before baking: Chilling the shaped galette in the refrigerator in step 6 helps it maintain its shape in the oven. I usually refrigerate it for 15 minutes as the oven preheats. If your refrigerator doesn’t have room for your baking sheet, or you’re nervous about transferring a cold metal baking sheet to a hot oven (which can cause warping), try this: Assemble the galette on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, then lift the parchment/baking mat with galette as a whole directly onto a shelf in the refrigerator. After chilling, when ready to bake, carefully lift up and place the entire parchment/baking mat with galette onto the baking sheet.
Reader Comments and Reviews
This turned out soooo good! For a little texture bonus, I sprinkled some candied walnuts on after baking. I’ll be making this again!
Great, easy recipe. I used my own pie crust recipe. After the filling was added and the edges folded up I added 1 T cubed, cold butter. I also added 1/4 cup chopped walnuts to the caramel sauce. Very nice!!!
It’s delicious but waaaaay too much butter.
Won’t be making it again or will have to adjust the amount of butter in the crust.
I love this! So easy. I cheated on it though. Did it have time one day. Used a refrigerated crust , rolled it out. Added a tablespoon of diced sweet butter to the apples to get a buttery taste. Good but obviously crust not as good as the recipe!
This galette came out so good for me!
I use a gluten-free pie crust – took it out of the shell after it thawed. I should have rolled it just a bit as I overestimated how much apples. I used what I thought was 3 and then added to it (I bought slices and cut off the peels. So I added more apples. On the crust there were too many, so I was able to roll the 2” around at bit more.
I also cooked it on a stone, as the GF crust needs to be well cooked on the bottom for the best flavor.
For gluten-free, I also used coconut flour under the crust and in the bowl with the fruit as it absorbs liquid better than almond. I did use parchment paper.
This was easy and delicious! Used a combo of Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples and made the salted caramel sauce too – which was amazing and a new favorite! Nice fall dessert!
Mine didn’t look quite as nice as yours, I think because I maybe put too much filling in the middle and couldn’t get the edges to fold up as neatly as your photos show. BUT, no one complained about that! Everyone loved it. Will definitely make this again. Easier than rolling out two pie crusts, and every bit as delicious.
I have all these pears from my tree. Can I use them instead of apples? Do you have pear recipes? Thank you and love your recipes!!
Hi Mari, you can absolutely use them here. Or, here is our gingered pear galette recipe instead. Let us know what you try!
This was recipe was mostly a fail for me. First off, the crust was amazing. However, the rest of it wasn’t very good. The apples did not cook, I used 500 grams that was recommenced in recipe . I added 10 more minutes to cooking time but all it did was burn the bottom crust. I made a peach galette and it was amazing, but apples just didn’t work.
I made this recipe for dessert for a dinner I had with my granddaughter, her boyfriend, and my grandson. It came together so easily, was beautiful, and they were all amazed that I made salted caramel… actually I was amazed myself at how simple a process it was to make something so special and delicious. Thank you!
Can you freeze the whole Galette once it has been cooked?
Hi Brenda, we don’t recommend freezing the shaped galette. Both the dough and filling can be made ahead of time and chilled in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months after prepared in step 1. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling out and filling. Or, you can make and refrigerate the baked galette for up to 4 days.
Made this recipe today, it was absolutely delicious! I cannot wait to make it with different fruits and berries. Thank you for sharing!
Can another fruit be substituted?
Absolutely! Or try any of my other galette recipes:
Strawberry Peach
Pear Ginger
Mixed Berry
Blueberry Peach Frangipane
Forgot to say in the first message that I adore making galettes but wanted to vary with some other winter fruit
Can I make this with pears or canned peaches as well? I know that canned fruit contains a great deal of liquid so that might cause a problem. Also the fruit is very soft and might become mushy while baking? I want to make two for a dinner party but thought I might vary the fruit. I have made this recipe many times and love it but wanted some variety for the second galette.
Hi Aline, for the best results, I do not recommend canned fruit. You can replace apples with pears or try my pear galette recipe.
Hello Sally,
I recently made this salted caramel apply galete for a dinner party and it turned out so well. I was thrilled and so were my guests. Delighted! Thanks so much. I am looking forward to trying some of the others
Can I substitute bottled lemon juice in the salted caramel apple galette filling?
Bottled lemon juice will work just fine here!
I have made this dessert multiple times. It is perfect and everyone loves it. I thought the caramel sauce would be tricky but it came out creamy and the right consistence thanks to the directions.
Love this site!
Thanks so much! I didn’t realise it was in the recipe notes!
Hi, I was just wondering what type of apples I should use for this galette. Eating apples?
And just wanted to say thank you for publishing such yummy recipes like this one to Sally and her team! This website is my go-to when I want to bake, so thanks!
Hi Benji, We are so happy you enjoy the site! See the recipe note on apples for our recommendations.
Delicious and so easy! Could I double this recipe and make a larger one or would two separate work out better?
Hi Heather, we’d recommend sticking with two separate galettes for best results!
I was wondering if this could be made with gluten free flour?
Hi Gabi, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, so we’re unsure of the results. Although some readers report using an all-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour in many of our recipes with success, you should expect slightly different results anytime you substitute ingredients. Let us know if you give it a try!
This was amazing! My husband and I loved it! I am going to make it for Thanksgiving. Thanks Sally!
This was simple and perfect! Came out beautifully. I used two regular sized honey crisp apples and the flavor was amazing. Thanks, Sally!
I made this recipe twice last week. I have never done pastry from scratch before but your instructions worked perfectly and both galettes were sooooo good! The salted caramel was so amazing that I would like to try this recipe with peaches. I know you have another recipe for peach galette but I really like the caramel. Do you think it work substituting peaches instead of apples???
Absolutely! I would blot the peach slices a bit before using because they are wetter than apples.
I haven’t tried this recipe yet and know that a traditional galette is made with a flaky pie dough but what are your thoughts/experience on making it with puff pastry? I thought it would give it a lighter, flakier taste
Puff pastry would be delicious for a galette! Let us know if you give it a try.
I have made this recipe multiple times and it turns out wonderful every time! The added drizzle
of the caramel sauce makes for a beautiful, mouth watering presentation as well. By the way, I’ve made the caramel sauce several times because I absolutely LOVE that stuff!! I always do a double batch because it’s ready to go on a cake, or a scoop of ice cream for added pizzazz. The butter does try to separate, but your directions are spot on to keep whisking under it surrenders to coming back together. It seems to keep just fine for several weeks in my fridge. Thank you for this and all of the other recipes I’ve tried from your collection. They have all been yummy!
Absolutely delicious! My family loved it and slathered extra salted caramel on top. Can’t wait to make this again.
Tried this recipe tonight and it was absolutely delicious. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes.
I made this on Sunday. I did the crust the day before and I just didn’t do the salted caramel this time. It was really good- the pastry was great and it was my first success rolling out the pastry- my prior times I didn’t use enough flour so the dough stuck to the pin. So I am really pleased it worked out well. Thank you Sally for the directions- I am going to try it again this time with the caramel!
Hi! my name is Samaara Gandhi, From India and I am 11 years old. I love to bake and cook and one day I saw your recipe, I wanted to try since the moment I set my eyes on it. I used a dough from another website because apparently that was a foolproof dough (I didn’t know if this was foolproof too). But I used your apple filling recipe… and Oh My God. It was so so soo delicious! I will definitely make this again. and soon 😉