pear galette
Author: 
Recipe type: dessert
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 7 tablespoons unsalted butter—5 tablespoons cut into small pieces and chilled, 2 tablespoons melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon milk
  • 2 tablespoons apricot preserves, strained
  • 2 large Bosc pears (I actually used Bartlett)
  • ½ teaspoon very hot water
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a medium bowl, toss the flour with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and the salt. Cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
  2. In a small bowl, beat the egg with the milk. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg over the flour mixture and stir. Working quickly, gather the dough into a smooth mass, squeezing it gently. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and pat it into a 5-inch disk. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate until firm but not hard, about 30 minutes. (I did mine for an hour and it wasn't too firm.)
  3. On a lightly floured surface (I used my silicon mat so I wouldn't have to transfer the rolled-out dough), roll out the dough to a 9½-inch round, turning it clockwise an inch or two each time you roll to maintain an even shape. Transfer the dough to a heavy flat baking sheet (if not using a silicon mat or parchment to roll out on). Fold up ¼ inch of the edge of the dough to form a neat rim. Using a knife, score the rim in a decorative pattern (which I did not do). Brush the rim with a little of the remaining beaten egg. Brush 1 tablespoon of the apricot preserves over the bottom of the dough and refrigerate while you prepare the pears.
  4. Peel, quarter and core the pears. Slice each quarter lengthwise into 5 thin wedges. Arrange all but 6 of the pear wedges on the dough in a spoke pattern, overlapping them slightly. Cut the remaining pear wedges and arrange them in the center of the tart to form a decorative rose.* Brush the pear slices with the melted butter and sprinkle with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar.
  5. Bake the galette in the middle of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes (mine took 24 minutes), or until the pears are tender and the pastry is crisp and golden. Carefully slide the galette onto a rack to cool slightly.**
  6. Stir the hot water into the remaining 1 tablespoon of apricot preserves and brush on the pears.*** Serve the galette at room temperature.
Notes
* I actually cut up extra pears and cherry-picked the best shaped pieces for the galette. Needless to say, I did not follow these directions on pear wedge positioning. ** There was a lot of bubbling and juicy leaking while baking, but the galette came out of the oven unscathed. I think my silicon mat helped. If the galette had been directly on the baking pan, sticky juice to metal, I suspect it would have been hard to release from the pan. *** Since my apricot preserves were chunky, I heated them with the water then strained them to make a smooth glaze for the pears. I didn't do this step for the preserves under the pears though, because I wanted a little texture other than the buttery crust and the sugary pears.
Recipe by story of a kitchen at https://www.storyofakitchen.com/dessert-recipes/pear-galette/