A spooky Halloween apple galette with carved Jack Skellington faces made from green apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flaky pastry.
Jack Skellington Rustic Apple Galette
by Jessie Daye
Jack Skellington Rustic Apple Galette
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour spooned & leveled, plus more for work surface
- ½ cup whole wheat flour spooned & leveled
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter cubed
- ¼ cup ice-cold water plus more as needed
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk for egg wash
- ¼ cup coarse brown sugar for finishing
- 8 medium green apples peeled, cored, and sliced in half; Granny Smith recommended
- ½ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup Cinnamon Apple preserves in the jam aisle
- Salted caramel sauce
Method
- In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, wheat flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the cold cubed butter using a pastry cutter or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until the dough comes together. Shape into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Peel, core, and halve the green apples. Using a small teaspoon, carefully scoop out two eye sockets on each apple half. With a paring knife, carve simple slits for nostrils and a stitched mouth to resemble Jack Skellington's face.
- In a medium bowl, toss the carved apple halves with the brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg until evenly coated.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Roll out the chilled dough into a rough 12-inch circle on a floured surface. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Arrange approximately 12 of the Jack Skellington apple halves face-up in the center, leaving about 2 inches around the edge. Add remaining two spiced apple halves to a parchment lined baking sheet to bake separately. These will be added back to the tart once it's baked because the apples shrink once baked and you want to fill the gaps.
- Fold the edges of the dough over the filling to create a rustic border. Brush the crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with coarse brown sugar.
- Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the apples are tender. Place two additional apple halves on the galette so all the apples are snug and brush with the apple cinnamon preserves until everything is glistening and any gaps have been filled.
- Allow to cool slightly. Drizzle with salted caramel, and serve warm with ice cream.
Notes
When you bake the galette the apples will shrink down significantly so you must bake two additional carved apple halves on a separate baking sheet and then place them on the finished tart and arrange them so they are all snug. If you want to use store bought pie crust, rolling both boxed pie crust sheets together will create a larger rustic galette. Depending on your apple sizes, you may need more or less apples.
Tried this recipe?
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Hi, I'm Jessie.
I’m a Los Angeles mama, home renovator, and lifelong creative, sharing the things that make everyday life a little more beautiful. I believe food is one of the best ways to bring people together, which is why I love cooking: it turns an ordinary Tuesday into something worth remembering. From recipes I make on repeat to DIY projects, home design, and a little bit of real life in between — welcome to my corner of the internet. I’m so glad you’re here.
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19 comments
Georgette Phillips
This looks amazing! Do you think it would work with a store bought puff pastry sheet?
Brandy V
I am about to try this – i did buy store bought pie crust and will use that. I did see above in between some of the pictures, the following:
** If you want to use store bought pie crust I recommend rolling both boxed pie crust sheets together to create a larger rustic galette like above.
Lou
How did it go with the store bought pie crust Brandy? 🙂
Bridget
I was wondering the same. I’m thinking it may take visual emphasis away from the apple skills.
Ava Palfrey
Is there a way to make this dairy free? I live in Taiwan and I haven’t found a shop where they sell the dairy free goodness yet! Would olive oil work? If so how much in place of butter?
Malinda
Shortening would probably be a better option, do some searches for dairy free pastry crust and tweak accordingly
zoe
Ava you can use margarine instead of butter 🙂
Morgan
Needed way more lemon juice because my brown sugar/flour mix was chunky.
Susana
What can I use instead of Cinnamon Apple preserves? I’m from Portugal and we don’t have that here.
Megan Bailey
Any kind of preserve would work – crabapple jelly, pear butter, fig jam etc I think it’s just a sugary glaze that if it can taste like cinnamon apples great but if not anything to make it glisten!
Jessie Daye
Yes thank you!
Jessie Daye
You can really use any preserve for a shiny glaze. Pear preserves or apple butter is more easily found in Europe and that works well too.
Charlotte
Hi Jessie, I just made this yesterday, it turned out great. My 5 year old helped by digging the eye sockets with a spoon and I did the nose and mouth with a knife. Excellent recipe, thanks very much for sharing it. Love from Belgium.
Nicole Dodds
All our apples came about the same med-large size in a 3 or 5lb bag so only 5-6 halves fit per tart leaving 9-10 extra halves. I cut up a couple into small pieces and filled in the gaps. I baked for 30 min and mine burnt so def watch the time. I used silicon mats, not sure if parchment makes a diff here. I’ll used store bought crust next time, it just took a little too long w carving all the faces, too. We made 3 total tho so. Posting serving size and time to make w the recipe would help w planning. I sent 2 to kids’ school so can’t comment on flavor but I do wonder if the apples were cooked well. I got strawberry jam bc they was no apple and I regret the red choice bc it looks like we were going for gory and we weren’t. Last, we made whipped cream to serve w bc it’s easier for school.
Anne
To those noticed that the photos showed 12 apple head uncooked 14 apple heads in the cooked gallete I refer you to this note in the blog: "Important: When you bake the galette the apples will shrink down significantly so you must bake two additional carved apple halves on a separate baking sheet and then place them on the finished tart and arrange them so they are all snug."
Leslie
Thanks for the inspiration! I made this for Halloween and it turned out great! The day before, I made the crust dough and cut up the apples into the Jack Skellington heads, dipping them in lemon juice to keep them from browning. I appreciated that your recipe called for whole wheat flour. When tossing the apples in the remaining filling ingredients, I omitted the lemon juice. I overlapped the apples and didn’t need the extras that I baked separately. I used a little bit of cornmeal under the final crust to make sure it slid easily after baking. I skipped the apple preserves and made a salted caramel sauce. Very festive and my guests loved it!
mj
If you boil apples, they will lose the shape of their faces. I would not recommend it.
Seonaid
I tried steaming them but only for a couple of mins, as my store bought pastry only takes 15 mins to cook and was worried the apples would be too hard. It was difficult to move them/coat them when they are soft but only lost one which made a good filler anyway!
Jessie Daye
Hi, St. Daulfers has a nice Apple preserve in the jam aisle of most grocery stores: You can really use any preserve for a shiny glaze. Pear preserves or apple butter works well too.