Pear Galette

I still shudder at the thought of making pastry.  I've tried making pastry 3-4 times so far, and I can't say that I've truly succeeded in making good pastry.  The mixing is rather easy (everything gets thrown into the food processor)... The part that gets me all flustered is the pastry rolling.  I don't know whether it's due to the hot and humid weather in Singapore, but the pastry dough goes soft really quickly whilst rolling. 

Well, this is precisely why I decided to make a galette - it's much much quicker to make since there's no need to line the dough in a pie tin (a very painstaking process).  And also because I found these pretty red anjou pears in the supermarket.  Call me a country bumpkin, but I've never eaten a red anjou pear before..So I just had to buy them.. Besides, I thought they were lovely to photograph.. so even if the pie didn't work out, it wouldn't be so bad.

I wasn't too happy with my pie crust this time around. I fumbled again during rolling... I was worried that the butter might have melted, so I didn't roll the dough thin enough at the edges.  

Well..I'll probably continue to make galettes till I've attained a perfect pie crust.  Practice practice practice. ha!(can't imagine how long that will take me!)

Pear Galette Recipe (adapted from Sweet Paul Online Magazine)
serves 5-6


1 single crust of pie dough (recipe below)
4-5 pears peeled, halved and cored (I used only 2.5 pears)
1/4 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamon
1-1/2 tbsp of flour and extra for dusting
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp butter
drizzle of honey (I used agave nectar)


- Preheat oven to 425F (220*C)
- Roll dough out on a floured surface.  Around 1/8" thick and roughly a 12" circle
- Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to rest in the refrigerator
- Slice pears.  In  a large bowl, toss them with a squeeze of lemon, spices, flour and sugar.
- Arrange fruit mixture in the centre of the dough, leaving a 2-3" border
- Fold dough over fruit, pleating all around.
- Dot centre with butter and drizzle with honey.
- Bake for about 35 minutes.  The crust will be golden brown and the fruit will be bubbling (strangely, my pears didn't bubble :( )
- Add another drizzle of honey when serving.


Pie Crust Dough
Makes 2 Single 9" pie crusts of 2 galettes
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (227g) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 egg whisked with enough cold water to make 1/3 cup


- Add salt, flour, butter to bowl of food processor fitted with blade attachment. Process until butter resembles small peas. (Use the pulse setting)
- Add 1/4 cup of egg and water combo and pulse until dough starts to get together.  If it's too dry, you can add a touch more water.
- Turn out onto a floured surface
- Pull together and divide into 2 discs
- Wrap individually into 2 cling wraps.  Refrigerate to rest for at least 1 hour.