Pear Galette for Lundulph's Birthday

It's the time of the year, when Lundulph's parents' pear tree is crammed with fruit and I'm racking my brain about what to do with them. Last year, I did work through a lot of my recipes and found one for a pear galette, which seemed rather nice and I decided to try it out this year. A quick google indicated that a galette is a rustic, free-form pie or tart.

This recipe turned out to be very nice indeed and is really not difficult at all, even if it may seem so, so definitely a repeat, the original can be found here in Swedish. Another huge benefit is that this can be prepared in advance up to the point of baking, so it's very suitable for dinner parties, when all you need to do is bake it while the guests are eating.

Ingredients

Pâte Sucrée - sweet pastry
100 g cold, unsalted butter
3 ¼ dl plain flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ dl granulated sugar
1 large egg

Almond paste
250 g marzipan
50 g unslated butter
1 large egg
½ dl plain flour
2 tbsp dark rum

Filling
4 - 5 crispy pears
50 g cold unsalted butter
3 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
50 g blanched almond flakes

icing sugar for dusting before serving

Method

1. Pinch together the butter, flour, baking powder and sugar. Add the egg and work it in just so everything combines well. Flatten the dough, cover in double clingfilm and let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. Grate the marzipan coarsely and melt the butter in a saucepan.
3. Stir together the marzipan, butter, egg, flour and rum until the paste is smooth.
4. Wash, peel and trim the pears, then cut into slices length-wise into equal thickness.
5. Mix together the muscovado sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 175° C fan.
7. Roll out the dough onto a piece of lightly floured baking paper to about 3 - 4 mm thickness.
8. Spread the almond paste over the pastry, but leave a clean edge of about 2 cm all around.
   
9. Lay out the pears over the almond paste,
   
   then sprinkle with with the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
   
   Take care not to go over the edge of the almond paste.
   
10. Using a cheese slicer or a potato peeler, cut out wide and thin butter pieces, then lay them over the pears, so that they are all covered.
    
11. Carefully fold up the clean eges of the pie dough, then bake for 50 minutes until everything has gone golden brown.
    

And here is the lovely result, I recommend it's served warm together with vanilla ice cream.

It was very well received when Lundulph came home together with his parents and we enjoyed a quiet celebration of his birthday. This galette did not last long, large as it was.