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Savoury pear galette recipe

by Stela Kordić

By now, you’ve probably heard me (or read me) going on about the principles of healthy eating a few times already and how balance, moderation and variety should be at the core of our diet. Well, this pear galette is one of those recipes that will need a bit of balancing out on your next meals, but Christmas is getting closer, and it is definitely one of those special occasions where we can switch off and allow ourselves a treat or two.

And what a treat this is! Pears and goat cheese are a match made in heaven, which, with the addition of aromatic onion and leek and syrupy, sweet Aceto balsamico reduction, will make your taste buds explode. And, of course, it won’t be the same without a crisp and crumbly shortcrust pastry that wraps it all up into a perfect Christmas gift for yourself and your loved ones!

Savoury pear galette sprinkled with thyme and topped with Aceto balsamico reduction

What is a galette?

It originated in France in Norman times, when it was known under the name “gale”, which translates to flat cake. It is a dish with a pastry base topped with different kinds of fillings, both savoury and sweet ones, and it comes in many different shapes and sizes.

The pear galette we’ll be making today is also known as Crostata in Italy, a form of tart that doesn’t bake in a mould. Its base is made from shortcrust pastry, just slightly enclosing the filling, giving it a very rustic look. It is baked until crisp while the open filling gets nicely caramelised.

But that’s not all there is to galettes. Another version called Galette de Rois is traditionally prepared in France for Epiphany, a tradition shared by other countries like Spain (Roscon de Reyes) or the US (King cake), each of them with their own traditional recipe. The typical French Galette de Rois is a flat cake with a rich filling made with butter, sugar, cream, eggs and almonds trapped inside layers of puff pastry.

In Britanny, on the other hand, they are all about Galettes Bretonnes, where the base is actually a buckwheat pancake topped with a savoury filling, very often Emmental cheese, ham and runny egg (Galette complète).

Even though at first they might seem like a complicated dish, galettes are actually pretty straightforward to make. Once you get the hang of the dough, you will enter a whole new world of endless possibilities and combinations!

What will you need for this pear galette recipe?

What goes inside the dough?

  • spelt flour 850
  • wholegrain buckwheat flour
  • unsalted butter
  • egg yolk
  • water
  • salt

What goes into the filling?

  • olive oil
  • yellow onion
  • leek
  • white wine
  • black olives
  • goat cheese
  • pears
  • thyme sprigs

Ingredients needed for the savoury pear galette recipe

How do you make the shortcrust pastry?

As I mentioned earlier, for this type of galette, we will make the base out of the shortcrust pastry, a very satisfying dough that is really easy to make. In case you have never heard of it, it is the same pastry used for making pies, quiches and tarts.

Its name refers to its characteristic crumbly texture, given by the lack of a tight gluten structure, which makes the dough crumble into a thousand small pieces inside your mouth.
Traditionally, shortcrust pastry is made out of only three ingredients: flour, butter and water, with a usual ratio of 2:1, flour to butter and only a small amount of ice-cold water. A 2:1 ratio? You guessed it… That is a lot of fat!

I wouldn’t be true to myself if I didn’t try to cut the amount of fat without it affecting the result in a negative way; that is, keeping the crumbliness and tastiness of the dough.
So, even though this shortcrust pastry recipe is not a classic one, it also has its recognisable crumbliness, more flavour thanks to the buckwheat flour, and considerably less fat. Let’s go through the steps needed to make your galette dough in the simplest, easiest way!

Making the dough

Something that will make this process much easier is to use a stand mixer, but don’t worry if you don’t have one; I’ll show you a way around it a bit further down the post.

Since the process of making shortcrust pastry needs to be fast, it is important to weigh out and prepare all the ingredients before the start. There is a couple of reason for this: first, allowing the butter to warm up will make the dough very difficult to handle (see ”Why do we add cold butter?), and secondly, kneading it for too long will cause the gluten to develop more than what we want, also making our life much harder later on.

Weigh out your butter, cut it into dice and put it straight back into the fridge. Prepare a jug of ice-cold water and also keep it in the fridge until you need it.
Sift and weigh out flours right inside the stand mixer bowl. Add salt and mix everything together using the lowest speed setting of your stand mixer. Then add the previously diced butter cubes to the flour mix, increasing the rotation speed.

After a minute, or when you get rice-like crumbles it is time to add the beaten egg yolk whisked together with the water (make sure no ice cubes make it into your bowl). Keep mixing for around half a minute or until you see the dough has come together.

Combining butter with flour in a stand mixer when making shortcrust pastry
Wait for the mixture to become crumbly with butter of a grain size.
Adding liquid to shortcrust pastry dough in a stand mixer
After adding the liquid, the dough will soon start coming together.

Then, take it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a few seconds (no more than one minute). Lastly, shape it into a flat-ish disc, wrap it with cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Kneading the shortcrust pastry dough on a floured surface
This is how the dough will look like after the process of kneading.

Why do we add cold butter?

By rubbing the fat into the flour we are allowing the small flour particles to surround the fat, giving the pastry its crumbliness. But if the butter starts to melt in the process, it will coat those flour particles, which won’t be able to absorb water. And if the flour can’t absorb the water, it tends to be crumbly and hard to roll out.
Adding cold butter will help keep the butter solid through the process of handling the dough.

Why do we add ice-cold water?

Using ice-cold water will help lower the temperature of the mixture, again helping the butter not to melt while incorporating all the ingredients. Apart from the water temperature, the amount of water also plays an important role. It should just help bring the ingredients into a workable dough. By adding more water than necessary, it will be easier to roll out the dough, but we are also risking a harder texture.

What is the egg yolk for?

Even though egg yolk is not essential when making shortcrust pastry, it can improve its structure and taste. Because of the lower fat content of this shortcrust pastry, the egg yolk will help obtain the desired texture and add some colour and flavour to the dough. Additionally, with a water content of around 50%, it will add to the liquid part of the mixture, helping to bind the doug

What happens if I overwork the dough?

To make shortcrust pastry, you should handle the dough as quickly as possible and avoid kneading the dough too much. Overworking the dough will encourage the formation of gluten, resulting in a harder dough. While this is necessary in pasta making, for example, here it could play against you.

Why are we resting the dough?

While the dough rests in the fridge, we allow the water to diffuse into the structure and the gluten strands to relax and become easier to work with later in the process. It will also prevent it from shrinking when baking it in the oven.

How to build up the pear galette?

After the dough has rested for a minimum of 30 minutes and once the filling is ready (later in the text), we can roll out the dough. The easiest way to do it is by placing it between two layers of baking paper to prevent it from sticking to the worktop. Doing this, we also avoid adding more flour to the dough, which may change its taste and texture.

Rolling out the shortcrust pastry

Roll it out to a thickness of 2-3mm, constantly rotating it to ensure it’s uniform all throughout. Once rolled, it should come to a disc of approximately 30 cm in diameter. Place the filling in the middle of the disk, leaving about 3,5 cm around the edges.

Shortcrust pastry with a pear goat cheese filling on top

Fold the remaining dough towards the centre, applying a small layer of egg wash to the overlapping corners to ensure they stick together. After you’ve tucked in all the edges, brush the dough with egg wash and leave it to rest in the fridge for another 15 minutes.

When 15 minutes have passed, take your dough out of the fridge, brush the pear slices with olive oil, apply a second layer of egg wash and put it to bake for 45 minutes or until the dough is golden brown.

Applying a layer of egg wash on the galette

What if I don’t have a stand mixer?

If you don’t own this piece of equipment, or you simply want to put your cooking abilities to the test, I will guide you through the very delicate process of kneading the dough by hand.

Prepare all the ingredients as per indicated above. Sieve and mix your flours, together with salt, into a mixing bowl. Then add your diced butter and rub the mixture as if you were trying to separate two pieces of paper that got stuck together. This step is crucial because, as I explained earlier, this will ensure that the butter gets coated with the flour. Take too long, and the butter will start melting. If this happens, put the mix back in the fridge and wait for around 15 minutes before you keep going.

Once you get the rice-like crumbs I mentioned earlier, add the liquid little by little, mixing well throughout. Once the dough holds together, take it out onto a lightly floured surface and continue as explained before.
At this point, there’s only one thing left to do: give yourself a pat on the back. You did it!

How do you make the filling?

Start by peeling yellow onions and slicing them thin and even. Then, slice the leek in half, lengthwise, and rinse it under cold water, gently separating the layers to remove all the dirt that is stuck inside. Don’t skip this step, since removing the dirt afterwards is definitely more work. Slice the leek following the same thickness than the onions. Heat up a pan with olive oil and add the sliced onions and leek.

Start by sweating them on medium-high heat to encourage the release of water and salt them lightly. When they start being translucent, cover the pan with a lid and lower the temperature. By covering the veg, the steam will speed up the cooking process, avoiding the addition of more oil to the pan. After 10 minutes have passed and everything is tender and sweet, add the white wine and cook for another 3-4 minutes, or until all the liquid is reduced.
As the last step add the chopped olives off heat and incorporate well into the mix. The rest is easy; cut the goat cheese into your desired shape and slice the pears into 2-3 mm thick slices.

Choose a variety of pear that is more acidic than sweet, but ripe. I chose a variety called Carmen with a beautiful multi-colour skin. As for the goat cheese, a firmer type that will not release water when cooking will be the best option for this pear galette recipe.

baked pear galette portion

Let me know if you try this recipe! Drop a comment and tag your photo with @stelasfoodstories on Instagram. I’d love to see your creations!

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Savoury pear galette recipe

Difficulty:

Try out my take on the classic shortcrust pastry, this time filled with pears, goat cheese, onion, leek, olives and more. This pear galette recipe......

Prep time 30

Cook time 65

Total time 95

Cutting board

Vegetable knife or Chef’s knife

Saute pan

Rolling pin

Stand mixer

Pastry brush

 

 

 

Keep the screen ON

Servings:

8

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

135 g spelt flour 850

45 g wholegrain buckwheat flour

65 g unsalted butter

1 egg yolk

40 ml ice-cold water

2 g or 0.5 tsp salt

For the filling:

15 ml or 1 tbsp olive oil

200 g yellow onion, thinly sliced

100 g leek, thinly sliced

50 ml white wine

20 g black Kalamata olives

100 g firm goat cheese

300 g pear, thinly sliced

4 thyme sprigs

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 180 °C or 356 °F. Cut cold butter into small even cubes and keep it in the fridge until needed. Fill up a measuring jug with a bit of water and add few ice cubes. Leave it in your fridge until adding it to the dough. Separate an egg yolk into a small bowl.

Complete step

Step 2

Weigh out the flours and salt into a stand mixer bowl. Mix the ingredients evenly on a low setting of your stand mixer. Measure the ice cold water into the bowl with the egg yolk, leaving the ice cubes behind. Whisk it with a fork until incorporated.

Note

In case you don’t have a stand mixer, check out “What if I don’t have a stand mixer?”

Complete step

Step 3

When the dry ingredients are evenly mixed, add cold butter cubes and increase the speed on your stand mixer. Butter will start crumbling up and making the dough flaky. After about 1 minute, when the crumbs are more of a grain size, add the liquid and continue mixing until the dough starts coming together.

Note

When making short-crust pastry these steps need to be quick. The more you wait, the higher the chance that the butter will start melting.

Complete step

Step 4

When the dough is sticking together (after about half a minute), transfer it to a floured surface and knead for a few more seconds. Shape it into a ball and flatten it out a bit. Wrap it with cling film and leave in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes.

Note

This step should only take a few seconds, it is key to not overwork the dough. The shape of the dough is not so important but it will help you in the next step, when rolling it out.

Complete step

Step 5

Now, while the dough is resting, you can prepare the filling. Peel and slice the yellow onion. Slice the leek in half lengthwise, starting a few centimeters lower than the roots. Rinse it under cold water, making sure to reach the inner-most layers.

Note

Washing the leek without slicing it in half will not remove the dirt accumulated in the inner layers.

Complete step

Step 6

Heat up a saute pan, add olive oil and once its hot, add the sliced onion and leek. After a minute or so, add a pinch of salt and sweat your veg on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until they start being translucent. Then, cover the saute pan and lower the heat. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes, until sweet and soft. Meanwhile, drain and weigh out black olives and chop them down finely.

Complete step

Step 7

When the onion and leek are cooked, raise the heat and add the white wine. Cook until all the liquid is reduced

Complete step

Step 8

Weigh out goat cheese and cut it into your desired shape. Mine came in a roll, so I cut it into approximately 3 mm discs.

Note

Use a firm goat cheese that won’t release any liquid when baking.

Complete step

Step 9

Cut the pears in half, remove the core and cut them into thin slices. Sprinkle them with lemon juice to prevent browning. Now that all the toppings are ready, you can roll out the dough.

Complete step

Step 10

Take the dough out of the fridge and place it between two layers of parchment paper. Work the dough by rolling the pin away from your body, but not pressing it down too much. Rotate the dough to ensure an even thickness of about 2-3 mm. I rolled out my dough to a diameter of 30 cm. Transfer the dough to the baking tray, placing a piece of parchment paper underneath.

Complete step

Step 11

Prepare the egg wash by whisking an egg. Spread the onion-leek mixture along the center of the dough, leaving the edges clean. Add goat cheese on top and finish by layering the pear slices. Fold the edges towards the middle, applying a thin layer of egg wash under the overlapping corners. Place the galette into the fridge for another 15 minutes.

Complete step

Step 12

Take the dough out of the fridge, brush the pear slices with a layer of olive oil and apply a second layer of egg wash onto the dough.

Complete step

Step 13

Bake the galette for 45 minutes in the oven until the edges are golden brown. Take it out and leave it on the baking tray to cool down for 10 minutes. Sprinkle it with a reduction of Aceto Balsamico at the end. If your Aceto is too liquid, reduce it to a syrupy consistency in a sauce pan. Voila!

Complete step

How to store this savoury pear galette?

Keep the galette in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can serve it warm or cold, it is great either way.

I really love making galettes because it allows me to play with a thousand different combinations and it is an ideal dish to bring to a family gathering or a dinner at home with your friends. You can also use this shortcrust pastry recipe to make both savoury and sweet tarts or quiches with your favourite fillings and add-ons.
Let me know what you think about this recipe in the comment section below and don’t forget that I’m always available on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!
Bon Appétit!

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