Although this recipe may seem a bit complicated at first, once you become familiar with making galette dough and cream filling, it’s actually very simple. The cream filling, which I use for many desserts, is delicious.
Enjoy!
Pear in a Bed of Pastry Cream
Equipment
- dough cutter optional
Ingredients
Dough
- 325 g all-purpose flour (2 1/2 cups)
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 180 g unsalted butter very cold (3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks)
- 5-6 Tablespoons iced water
Pastry Cream
- 236 mL whole milk (1 cup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 4 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch
Fruit and Topping
- 4 pears conference, concorde, bosc or other large variety in season
- 1 egg yolk for brushing before baking
- Demerara sugar coarse light brown sugar
- pre-sliced almonds
Instructions
Galette Dough
- Freeze butter for 10 minutes or until very cold. Grate butter using large holes of a box grater. Return grated butter to freezer for another 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold grated butter, tossing to combine. Working quickly to avoid warming, use your hands (or pastry cutter) to break up butter into smaller pieces, like small peas. You should be able to see pieces of butter. I make all doughs by hand, but you may also use a food processor for this as long as you avoid over-mixing.
- Drizzle a couple of spoonfuls of iced water in mixture and toss to moisten. Continue adding remaining water until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed with fingers. To ensure a flaky crust, work quickly and do not over-process.
- Turn dough out (still crumbly) from bowl onto counter and very lightly fold and bring together into a ball. It should still be slightly crumbly.
- Shape dough into a thick disc, wrap with cellophane and refrigerate 1-2 hours or overnight.
Pastry Cream Filling
- In a medium bowl, whisk yolks together with sugar, cornstarch and flour until well combined, set aside. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring milk, vanilla and butter to a light simmer, stirring continuously just until you see tiny bubbles begin to form around edges of pot. Quickly lift pot from heat to avoid boiling, then using a strainer pour a little at a time in a thin stream into yolk mixture, whisking continuously to avoid lumps. Pour egg and milk mixture back into saucepan and place over medium-low heat to bring back to a light simmer, stirring continuously. You will notice the mixture thicken, once it thickens, cook lightly by stirring continuously for additional minute or so. Remove from heat and let cool. I had no film form on top of the cream, but should it form just remove carefully before using. If using cream same day, reserve at room temperature. If baking next day, refrigerate until ready to use.
Back to Dough
- After refrigerating dough, divide into 4 equal parts and gently form each part into a ball. Lightly sprinkle surface and rolling pin with flour and stretch and shape into an oval. The dough should be stretched finely, not thick. Place the stretched pieces on a wire rack lined with parchment paper and refrigerate while you proceed to prep the pears.
- Wash pears and dry with paper towel. Cut in half lengthwise and using a knife or small spoon remove rounded central part with seeds. Turn pear (peel included) flesh side down and laminate (slice thinly) without reaching the top of the fruit to form a fan. Don’t worry about perfectly even slices. Repeat process with remaining pear halves.
- Spoon cooled room temperature pastry cream on each of the shaped dough pieces, leaving a little edge room without cream to fold over pears. Place laminated pear face down on cream. Fold edges of dough up to pear pinching and making folds as you go. Never mind perfect folds.
- Preheat oven to 180C/355F. Brush dough with beaten egg and sprinkle with Demerara sugar and sliced almonds. Bake 35-40 minutes, making sure dough is golden but not over-browned. I broiled them for a couple of extra minutes at the end, but must watch at all times to avoid burning. If you like, you may also sprinkle Demerara sugar on the pear itself after baking or brush with simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar brought to a boil and thickened).