Caramelized Onion, Apple, and Cheddar Sourdough Galette

At the end of the summer I made a DELICIOUS savory sourdough crust tomato, cheddar, and caramelized onion galette for dinner. While eating it I fast-forwarded in my mind to when local apples would be in season because if you swap out those tomatoes for apples, all of the rest of the flavors still go together really well.

With Thanksgiving upon us, I’m thinking a galette makes more sense than a traditional pie this year. It especially makes more sense if you want the taste of a pie but don’t want to make a whole pie just for two or three people. With a galette, you can have a sloppy crust and make a smaller size, a win-win for someone like me who is not particularly good at making a decorative crust and who is having Thanksgiving at home for just the two of us. The galette in this post was meant to be savory, but you can take this idea and fill it with traditional sweet apple pie, cherry pie, etc.

Just like with my tomato “pie” I followed the recipe for the crust and baking instructions from The Perfect Loaf.

First I caramelized some onions in butter. I had an unrolled ball of crust in my freezer from my previous galette that I pulled out and put in my fridge the night before. While the onions caramelized, I brought the dough up to temp and then rolled it out on parchment paper and put it back in the fridge to chill again. I can’t recall which apples I used, but they were local to Colorado. I sliced them really thinly because my intention was not to make a syrupy sweet cinnamon-sugar pie filling that requires cooking down the apples and chilling them before filling your pie. For this dish I wanted the apples to just cook through while the galette cooked.

When it was about time to make dinner, I pulled the crust from the fridge and smeared the caramelized onions in a circle in the center, leaving about 4 inch edges from when you fold that on top. I layered apples and cheddar cheese with a little salt, pepper, and thyme from the garden. Bacon would actually go really well with this I’m just thinking now as I’m typing. Fold the edges up and press them a little to form one solid crust. The Perfect Loaf suggests an egg wash which I did as well as sprinkle a little salt since it was savory.

I served my apple onion cheddar galette with arugula from the garden.

I’m not sure if I’ll make a savory “pie” like this that will taste divine with my caramelized onion gravy that I’ve been making for more than a decade now, or a sweet version for Thanksgiving this year. In one form or another though a galette will be on our small menu.

Savory Sourdough Galette with Caramelized Onion, Tomato, and Sharp Cheddar Cheese

One of my favorite things to make, but only when local tomatoes are ripe, is a caramelized onion and tomato pie. I usually make a standard pie crust and then fill it with caramelized onions, gorgeous local tomatoes, and some form of goat cheese or blue cheese. I had this in mind as I had local Colorado onions and tomatoes in my kitchen, and was in the process of making sourdough bread.

Sourdough has become my hobby since the pandemic had me looking closely at costs and I could not justify a $10 loaf from the local bakery. After some unsuccessful attempts I found The Perfect Loaf and have been using his sourdough recipe and making successful boules. The Perfect Loaf has a recipe for a peach galette with sourdough starter used in the pie crust. As soon as I saw this recipe I knew it was time to make my pie- in the form of a galette.

I followed The Perfect Loaf’s recipe exactly for the crust and the link is here: Sourdough Galette

I caramelized a local white onion in olive oil and a touch of salt, pepper, and thyme from my garden.

It’s super easy to make a galette. Roll out the crust and return it to the fridge to be sure it remains cold- especially in the summer.

We had no goat cheese in the fridge but we did have a sharp crumbly cheddar, and that flavor goes well with tomato and caramelized onion, so I used that instead. The bottom layer was onion, then cheese, then freshly sliced tomatoes.

You need to leave room around the edges to fold them up for the classic galette shape. Fold them up and press them together to seal the seams. Brush with egg for a beautiful browning effect. Bake, and enjoy.

I followed The Perfect Crust’s directions exactly except for the filling. And, rather than sprinkle sugar on the egg washed crust I added a little more salt. So again, I direct you there for the recipe: The Perfect Loaf Sourdough Galette

This is one of my all time favorite dishes now. I have an extra crust ready to go in the freezer.

Cheddar and Pepper Stuffed Corn Bread

I found a great Buttermilk Cornbread recipe from a fellow ailurophile and food blogger Cat, from Fox in the Pine. Her recipe made more cornbread than I had expected, so I was thrilled to nibble on one of my favorite quick breads for a few days. Having leftovers also inspired me to explore stuffed cornbread, or a cornbread “sandwich,” if you will.

I sautéed some green pepper and onion from the farmers’ market.

Then I DIDN’T nibble… I sliced the cornbread and used self control and waited patiently.

Next, it was a simple sandwich making process: cheddar cheese and sautéed peppers and onions.

I baked my cornbread sandwich on a pizza stone at 350 or so until it was all warm and melty and amazing.

It’s my new favorite treat. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Kale Frittata

I hadn’t planned to blog about this dish, but it was so simple and good, I thought- Why not?

Kale was on sale at Whole Foods, so I came home with more kale than a single woman can consume without juicing it. That meant kale was going to be added in to whatever concoction I came up with for dinner. I also had a dozen eggs I hadn’t even touched in a week, so I decided to throw together an egg-based baked dish (or baked frittata, if that is even a culinary possibility, as frittatas are traditionally skillet-fried…) But, I’m calling this dish a Sweet Potato Kale Frittata. Sorry that it’s technically not a frittata.

I sautéed half of a chopped red onion in a few tablespoons of olive oil, and then added a peeled and cubed white sweet potato (2 cups or so). When the potato was soft, I added a couple cups of thinly sliced kale and a half cup of chopped parsley. Next, I transferred the potato kale base into a bowl and mixed it with 6 eggs that had been whisked with a few tablespoons of olive oil and a little bit of grated white cheddar cheese. After all of the potato and kale mixture was coated with egg, I salted, peppered and poured it into a pyrex baking dish.

I baked it for 40 minutes or so on 350 and it came out perfectly, which could have been a fluke as I was on the phone the entire time and not even paying attention to the oven.

As I was in a no-frills cooking mood, I topped it with my favorite condiment: Ketchup mixed with Red Rocks Hickory Smoke Seasoning from Savory Spice Shop. You can’t go wrong with that combo.

Cheers!