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.

Rhubarb Pie

Chef Sean Smith is a fan of Martha Stewart’s recipes because they are easily multiplied. That essentially means she nails the ingredient ratios so if you’re making a double or triple batch of cookies, you can be confident that doubling or tripling her recipe will end up with something delicious. So, when I was tasked with making a pie for our clients, I went right to Martha.

The recipe starts by suggesting you make this pie the day before you plan to serve it, which is exactly what I did. I suggest you make your pie crust first and keep it cold in the refrigerator. Make your crumble topping second and keep it cold in the fridge as well until you’re ready to sprinkle it on top of the filling. Below you’ll find three sections: dough, filling, and crumble topping.

Ingredients for the Pie Dough:

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 cups cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1/4 (or a little more if needed) ice water

The easiest way to make dough is to add the flour, sugar, salt, and butter to a food processor and give it a whirl. Then slowly add the ice water until it’s dough. Finish by forming it into a ball, wrap it in parchment paper, and refrigerate until you’re ready to use it.

Ingredients for the Pie Filling:

• All- purpose flour, for dusting
• 1 3/4 pounds (approximately 6 cups) rhubarb with the ends trimmed and cut crosswise into 3/4 inch pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• Pinch of salt

Ingredients for Crumble:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons chilled butter

And now to make the pie! Here’s my pie before baking, just for reference.

1. Place the pie dough on parchment paper and roll it out to fit in a 9 in pie pan. Fit the dough into the pan, trim/crimp your edges, and refrigerate for an hour.
2. Preheat oven to 400 with the rack at the lowest level.
3. Add the crumble ingredients to a bowl and mix until the butter is somewhat evenly distributed. Chill in the fridge until you reach step 5.
4. In a large bowl, toss the rhubarb with sugar, cornstarch, and salt.
5. Pour filling into the pie crust, distribute it evenly, and sprinkle the crumble topping on top.
6. Place pie pan on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. This is important as it will help clean up be a synch!
7. Place your pie in the oven and lower it to 375 degrees. Bake for approximately 1.5 hours and cool completely before serving.

Veggie Shepherd’s Pot Pie

I must admit- I’ve really started slacking at cooking since Sean and I met. He’s such a talented chef and spent the last year cooking for us many nights each week, regardless of his work schedule. All of that changed since taking on his new role as Kitchen Manager at Zeal. He spent a month getting the place up and running and now, almost two months into his new job, is hardly ever at home, so I have stepped back into my role as an avid home cook. He deserves it, and it’s fun for me, too.

As it’s winter, I thought something hearty would be enjoyed for dinner. I’m calling this one a Veggie Shepherd’s Pot Pie. It is pretty easy to prepare, but takes some time, so allow a few hours from start to finish.

First, I made the pie crust by basically following THIS RECIPE but adjusting it for just one cup of flower. After making the dough, I let it sit in the fridge for a little over an hour to chill.

While the dough was chilling in the fridge, I started chopping a yellow onion, four or five stalks of celery, four rather large carrots, and a peeled garnet yam. I added these to a sauté pan with a little olive oil and let them slowly start to cook. Next, I chopped up two Smoked Apple Sage Sausages (vegan sausages, of course) made by Field Roast, an artisan grain meat company. Sean introduced me to this company and I’ve come to really enjoy some of their products. It’s not typical fake meat trying to imitate meat and meat products. Field Roast makes a variety of sausages that are clearly not meat, yet are versatile and tasty additions that complete many of our vegetarian dishes here at home. And, the ingredient list on their sausages meets my high standards.

So, into the pan went the chopped sausage, a few splashes of homemade veggie broth, and I let this all cook on medium for thirty or forty minutes. Then I salted and peppered to taste, added a pinch of dried crumpled sage, a little parsley and thyme. I chopped a handful of kale and added it to the mix at the end and took my pan off the heat. It was now time to roll out my dough, make my bottom crust in a pie pan, and add the filling.

Don’t forget to PREHEAT THE OVEN, by the way, to 350 degrees.

I boiled water and cooked a white Hannah yam while making the filling, but set it to the side for the first 15 minutes the pie was in the oven. When the yam was cool enough to touch, I mashed it and spread it over the pie (which I had briefly taken out of the oven, of course) and then let it bake until the top was starting to develop a crust and turn brown and the pie crust was golden and crispy (20 more minutes or so). The look on Sean’s face when he returned home after another fifteen hour work day was all I needed to know I had really shown him how much I care. After all, we all know the way to a man’s heart…

One slice of this was definitely not enough for either of us. I must admit- this was one of my best dishes in a long time.