I've actually been itching to make a roasted butternut squash, leek, mushroom, and goat cheese galette but alas I have no goat cheese. The overripe pears on my kitchen counter were calling my name, but I didn't want to bake just another simple pastry with fruit and butter. Mascarpone is usually the perfect compliment to any fruit, and as expected, my fridge was bare of such cheese. But I did have pecans and sugar and decided I wanted to spice things up with a little ginger to give my galette depth beyond a plain fruit pastry. And it was a perfect call too! Because of the pecan paste, I could cut down the added sugar in the fruit and crust. The result was a flaky base with juicy fruit leaking into the nutty paste - too tempting to resist.
Crust
1 stick butter - softened
4 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup flour
1 egg
cream as needed
2 tsp lemon juice
Pecan Ginger Paste
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground ginger
3/4 cup pecans
1/2 cup powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
1 egg
Filling
4 ripe pears
3 tbsp honey to drizzle
nutmeg
Crust
- Whisk egg in a measuring cup and add cream until the liquid reaches 1/3 cup. Set aside
- Using an electric mixer or your clean hands, mix together butter, flour, salt, and sugar until the dough is crumbly with pea sized pieces.
- Slowly add in the cream and egg mixture (leaving about 1/8th cup behind) until the dough starts to stick together.
- Add in lemon juice and mix thoroughly.
- Roll dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill in fridge for about 2 hours (or more - can be made a day ahead)
- Roast the pecans in a pan until they are fragrant and start to have blackish-spots
- Add the roast pecans, freshly ground ginger, and powdered sugar into a food processor, and grind until the mixture turns grainy and paste-like.
- Take the paste out into a bowl and add a whisked egg. (You can store this mixture overnight if necessary as well)
- Cut pears in half, remove seeds, and then further slice them in 1/4 inch slivers.
- Roll out dough (you might need to leave it out for a bit so it's easier to work with) into a wide circle (a little over a foot long).
- Spread paste on the base of the dough, leaving about an inch border
- Arrange overlapping pear slices in a circle and sprinkle with nutmeg and drizzle with honey.
- Bake at 375 degrees celsius for 40ish minutes and serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.