Autumn time calls for relaxed afternoons with a warm cup of coffee. Well, you cannot but insert a little treat in there: individual quince galettes with mahlap and cardamom.

Head straight to the recipe.

We are lucky in Athens, autumn has been mild and mellow. We never really get the warm brown colours of shed leaves as most of our streets are lined with citrus trees. There is, however, plenty of time for cosy afternoons and a warm cup of coffee is in the cards. Obviously, there has to be dessert to accompany it. I had a lovely bag of quince from the neighbours, a proper treat! Firm quince with light fuzz, bright golden colour and a challenge to make something slightly different this time.

My favourite quince recipe is preserve, the well-known quince spoonsweet – gliko tou koutaliou – not the smooth Portuguese membrillo though but the chunky spoon sweet with almond pieces that we make in Greece. There will be time enough to make some of this as well, but first things first: galettes.

Have you ever made galettes? I got inspired by the apple galettes Magda made in my little expat kitchen. It is hard to resist a buttery, crumbly dough and quince in the oven works wonders. Let alone that Magda has worked magic (yet again) in her dough recipe adding cardamom and mahlab for flavour. These galettes are definitely a winner.

Before I let you go make yours though, I have some exciting news to share. Do you remember Foodathlon? There are many foodie activities running this week along with the Athens Marathon. This Thursday, you will find me at Foodography, the food photography workshop at Fouar restaurant in central Athens. I will take you through food photography click by click and of course there is a great meal to enjoy!

There are still a few places left if you wish to join me. You can check out more here. 

Print Recipe

Individual quince galettes with mahlab and cardamom

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Servings: 4

Ingredients

for the galettes dough

• 250 all purpose flour
• 35 gr icing sugar
• 3 gr whole mahlepi seeds
• seeds from 3 green cardamom pods
• 180 gr cold unsalted butter
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbsp +1/2 cold water

for the filling

• 2 large quince + 1 apple
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tbspn of demerara sugar
• 1 small egg +1 tspn of water for glazing
• 2 tbspn demerara sugar for sprinkling on top

Instructions

• Use a mortar and pestle to grind together the mahlab seeds and cardamom seeds.
• To make the galette pastry, use a food processor and add in the cold butter, ground mahlab and cardamom, flour, icing sugar and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then proceed with the egg yolk and water until your mixture turns moist, coarser breadcrumbs. You know it's ready when you press it together, it should hold together.
• Empty the dough in a clean working surface and bring it together, without kneading. Share the dough in four balls and flatten into disks. Cover in plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for 30-40 minutes.
• Prepare the fruit, slicing them thinly. Place them in a large bowl along with the lemon and sugar and toss to cover.
• Preheat the oven at 180 C. Line your tray with a baking sheet.
• Take the cool dough out of the fridge and grab your rolling pin. Roll out each disk into 17-18 cm rounds of roughly 5mm thickness. Move it to the lined baking tray and repeat with the rest of the dough.
• Divide the quince and apple filling in the middle of the pastry and leave about 3 cm space from the edge. Fold in the edges to wrap the filling and return in the fridge for another 10 minutes.
• While you wait, mix the egg and water to combine and brush over the pastries with the egg wash and sprinkle the sugar on top each disc.
• Bake in the middle rack for 15-20 minutes – until the pastry turns golden.

Notes

Note: recipe slightly adapted from Magda, My little expat kitchen

You can enjoy the quince galettes with a cup of coffee and perhaps, maybe a dollop of cream on the side. I just sprinkled mine with a bit of icing sugar.

Have a lovely week ahead everyone and I hope to see you on Thursday at the Food-ography workshop. You can still grab your seat here.

From Athens with love,

Eugenia

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