Almond Halva Pear Galette
It’s officially Galette season. Come fall and Thanksgiving, everyone loves making pies or galettes. While pie making is labor of love; Galettes are so simple and rustic to make.
Galette are more rustic than a pie or tart. Anyone, who feels a little intimidated by pie dough will not feel this way with galette. They are super simple and there is no real perfection required to form a galette. It’s free form design. Galettes are abstract and that’s what I love about them. It has flaky, tender crust and if you are making savory galette then ideally a cheesy, herby flavor is the best. Often, galette can be made either sweet or savory with summer vegetables like tomatoes, zucchini, squash etc. or this Indian take on savory galette. Galette are so versatile because they can be made sweet or savory. Deliciousness should not be limited.
Today we are making sweet Galette with pears. Perfect fall baking approved.
This can be served for dessert, or I approve of leftover galette for breakfast too. So good with a cup of coffee. You can even have it for picnics because they carry well. You can even serve them in small bite size for parties and get togethers. You know, how much I love entertaining. So, I will sure share a recipe that can easily serve for parties.
You can also use store- bought pie crusts if you want to take shortcuts. Nothing wrong with it. But if you get hang of making the crust then it’s all simpler too. I have shared peach and blueberry galette, a ricotta asparagus galette using store bought puff pastry.
It’s such a good idea of storing some galette dough in the freezer. It makes it so much easier. I do save some pie dough in the freezer. Making the filling hardly takes time.
There are 3 components to the recipe.
Dough – It can be made with all white flour, or a mix of flours also work well. You can use butter, or ghee. Yes, ghee makes a great galette. Today I used butter but next time some brown butter will be a good option too. You need fats. Oil does not work here. You can flavor the dough with some cardamom powder, it would add such nice flavor.
The filling – I have added the almond frangipane filling along with my favorite Halva which has a very nutty texture. I love snacking on halva, so this was a great addition. Fruits could be anything from apples to pears, to any other fruit. But for this recipe apples or pears are best. If you do not like halva or do not have it, just don’t worry. This was an after thought and its in small quantities.
I love galette with some Creme Fraiche from Vermont Creamery but serve it with ice cream.
Almond Halva Pear Galette
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter
- ¼ cup plus 2 tbsp ice cold water
- Heavy cream or milk for wash
- Optional – coarse sugar, almonds, pistachios
Almond Halva filling
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ cup almond flour
- 2-3 tbsp halva optional
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp almond or vanilla extract
- 2-3 semi-ripe pears
To serve
- Caramel
- Ice cream/crème fraiche
Instructions
Dough
- Whisk together the dry ingredients. Work in the butter until the mixture is crumbly and the butter forms pea-sized granules in the flour. You can use your hands or a food processor. If you use food processor, be careful to not over process it with butter.
- Drizzle in 4-5 tablespoons of water, stirring gently until everything is evenly moistened; add the final tablespoon of water, if necessary, to make the dough come together. Your dough will look shaggy, crumbly and might look like it won’t form a disc.
- Dump the dough into a parchment paper, pat the dough to form into a disk, wrap it, and refrigerate for 10-20 minutes. The goal is to keep the butter still cold inside the dough which will make it flaky when it bakes. You can make the dough in advance and store it for longer time in the freezer. It saves up time specially during holidays.
Almond Filling
- Take melted butter, sugar, salt, almond meal, almond extract, and halva and whisk until a paste forms. Usually there is an egg in the frangipane, but I kept it eggless. There should be no lumps. Leave it aside.
- Remove the skin on pears if you like, you can leave the skin on too. Core the pears and chop them into thin slices; just before the assembly or else they will turn dark.
Assembly of the Galette
- Pre- heat your oven to 375 F. Take the dough out for just few minutes before rolling. Use some dry flour and roll out your dough, rotating it every few rolls to keep it from sticking. It would be little bit hard to roll at first, but it will come along. Stop when it’s about 10 or 11 inches in diameter, or when it’s at a thickness that is preferred by you. I prefer very thinly rolled but enough that it can hold the filling.
- At any given point, your dough starts sticking too much. You can place it in the refrigerator for few minutes after forming the disc.
- Add your almond halva filling. Spread it in an even layer in the middle, leaving sides open. I prefer 1-inch top crust. If you like more top crust, you can leave about 2 inches from disc and keep a broader border.
- Place your thinly sliced pears in any shape or pattern you desire. Fold sections of dough on top of the filling, creating a tight seal. This is fun part as you can fold it anyways you like.
- You can egg wash the borders of the dough or use cream if you do not eat eggs. I used milk to wash the sides of the crust of the dough. Sprinkle with little bit of granulated cane sugar, almonds and pistachios.
- Bake your galette – Place the galette with parchment paper lined baking tray in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until your crust is a deep golden brown. You want the crust to be golden brown for that flakiness.
- Remove it from the oven once it baked. Let it cool on a wire rack.
- Slice it in triangles and serve it with side of ice cream or crème fraiche, or whipped cream. I also made a small batch of caramel to serve it with.
Notes
- If your dough is feeling particularly soft and therefore making you nervous, stick the whole thing into the fridge or the freezer until it firms up. Even after you place the filling and the dough looks soft, place the whole tray into freezer for 10 minutes or until it looks firm.