Pear Galette

Happy New Year!  Wishing you all a joyous and healthy new year...with some baking of course =)

There are so many desserts I want to make, but very little time to make that happen.  So, when the holidays come around, and I have time to bake, I know I can trust my family to be my guinea pigs =)

When it comes to family gatherings, we are simple folk.  My mom and aunt love danish rings from the local bakery, so I knew I wanted something tender and flaky.  I knew it also needed to have fruit: hello use for the pears in my fridge!  After racking my brain for a few days, I finally decided that a galette was the way to go.

For the crust, you can either buy frozen puff pastry at the supermarket, or you can make it from scratch.  You can use this puff pastry recipe if you'd like to make it from scratch.  For this recipe, the directions will be as if you are working with store bought puff pastry.  Sometimes, when life is busy, you just have to take a shortcut.

Ingredients

• Puff pastry sheet (thawed)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup apricot preserves (I used Bonne Maman)
• 3 ripe pears
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tbsps. raw brown sugar (turbinado sugar)

Directions

1. Thaw puff pastry for 40 minutes.
2. While the pastry is thawing, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Core and thinly slice the pears.
3. Lightly flour your surface and roll out the pastry dough to approximately 15" - 16" in length.  Transfer the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Spread preserves onto dough, leaving a 2" border.
5. Arrange the pears slices so that they are slightly overlapping each other.
6. Fold the border over the pears, gently pressing so that it sticks to the pears.
7. Lightly brush the edges with the egg.
8. Sprinkle the edges and pears with the sugar.
9. Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
10. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.
11. Cut and serve.  You can top it with whip cream or vanilla ice cream and enjoy!