Rustic Pear Galette
A free-form pastry filled with cinnamon and cardamom spiced pear slices, baked until the crust turns deep golden and shatter-crisp. It leans on a from-scratch pie dough rather than store-bought puff pastry, and it is the dessert to make when a full pie feels like too much fuss.
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Pastry blender (or two forks, works fine for cutting in the butter)
- Rimmed baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1-½ cup All-purpose flour plus a few tablespoons extra for working the dough
- 5-½ tablespoons sugar divided
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons cold butter cubed
- ¼ cup very cold water
- 3 large pears sliced
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 large egg whisked with 1 T water or milk to make egg wash
- 1-2 tablespoons turbinado sugar to taste
- powdered sugar to serve
Instructions
- Make dough: Add flour, 2-½ tablespoons of sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add cold butter cubes. Cut butter into the flour with a pastry blender or by using two forks to mash butter into the dry ingredients. The mixture should be crumbly with very small pieces of butter sprinkled all throughout the flour.
- Pour in cold water and stir until the dough begins to come together.
- Sprinkle your work surface with a little flour and turn out the dough onto the floured surface. Work it into a ball and then flatten into a round disc. Wrap the disc in a piece of plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to rest for at least 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, in the same bowl you used for the dough, toss the pears with 3 tablespoons of sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and cardamom. Place in the refrigerator while the dough rests.
- Preheat the oven to 400° F.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface. Unwrap the disc of dough and place it on top of the parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a circle, anywhere between 10 and 12 inches in diameter.
- Add the pear filling to the center of the rolled out galette, leaving a 3-inch border of dough around the filling to allow for proper overlapping of the filling to create a beautiful rustic crust. Fold the dough over the pears, working in a circle and overlapping slightly as needed. Lightly press the dough to seal any cracks. This does not need to be perfect.
- Brush the galette crust with egg wash mixture and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake the galette until the crust is deep golden-brown, approximately 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. When ready to serve, sprinkle with a light dusting of powdered sugar. The galette will taste best if served warm on the day it is made. Enjoy!
