Hiatus

Friends, readers, blog surfers, I bid thee farewell – temporarily anyway. The next 7 weeks leading up to graduation are going to be the most difficult 7 weeks of my life thus-far, and I am unable to continue producing these entries for your viewing pleasure. I will, however, continue to post pictures and recipes when I have the time, but for the most part, this blog is going into a short-term hibernation. I will be back in exactly 7 weeks, so mark your calendars.

Love and thank you so much for your continued support.
AnhD

Rustic Pear Galette
Quick notes: (1) Play with the filling to your heart’s content! This time I used an anise-clove-cinnamon syrup that I had make a while ago for baklava to poach the pears, giving this this wonderfully aromatic and spiced warmth that complements these autumn pears sooo well. Contrarily, you can just as easily douse the sliced pears with a few tablespoons of melted butter, then dust with sugar. Play around and have fun. (2) This is my favorite dough recipe. Super easy and very quick to make – even if just using your own hands. (3) I actually made mini-galettes from this dough, and they turned out very cute and convenient for controlling portions.

Ingredients
Dough:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 tablespoons chilled water
1 egg, beaten
Raw sugar for sprinkling, optional

Filling:
4-5 pears, peeled and sliced [I used a variety]
*Please read quick note above.
Poaching Syrup (1/2 c honey + 1/2 c water + 1 stick cinnamon + 1 whole dried anise flower + 1/4 tsp clove; bring to simmer in saucepan and allow to cook until syrup infused with spice flavors)

Directions
For dough: mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add 2 tbs of butter, and blend until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining butter, mixing until biggest pieces look like large peas. I like to use a wooden rice paddle to work this all in, when I don’t have a food processor handy. Just remember, minimal heat and as little working as possible to prevent a tough dough.

Sprinkle in 1 tbs water, mix, then add in 1 tbs more, just until dough holds together. Toss with hands, letting it fall through fingers, until it’s ropy with some dry patches. If dry patches predominate, add another tablespoon water. Keep tossing until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a thick disk, cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400*F. Before using, allow to soften until malleable, but still cold. Roll out onto a floured surface, about 1/8″ thick. To make a free style galette, simply place dough onto baking sheet. Arrange pear slices in the center of the dough. You can arrange them nicely in a flower patter, or if you are constrained for time, just dump your pear slices onto the center and just arrange to even it out. Leave about a 1.5″ edge to form the galette.

Taking the sections of the dough’s edge, fold toward the center so it covers the closest pears. This is free-form, so don’t worry too much about shape. Brush the crust exterior with egg wash, then sprinkle a healthy amount of raw sugar crystals. Bake for about 40-50 mins or until golden brown and beautiful. Enjoy.