Pear and Nutella Galette

What with it being a new year, I am trying things that I haven’t been too confident of in the past. Such as pastry – my nemesis. I usually have a motto – life is too short to make your own, especially when supermarkets do a good enough job in selling it.

But, I was determined to try making it again , especially after watching my new favourite show on Food Network – Bake with Anna Olson. I have recorded them all, and am making my way through the shows.

Anna made her recipe for short crust pastry look uber easy, and when she made little apple galettes at the end, a free form sort of apple pie, I wanted to make something along those lines. And I had seen a few recipes incorporating Nutella recently. I really love Nutella, the chocolaty hazelnut spread, it takes me back to the tuck shop at school when you could buy a little pack, which came with a spoon and eat it on it’s own.

Anyhoo, I digress, I thought pears would be a perfect accompaniment to the Nutella – so set about making my Pear and Nutella Galettes. 

Yield: 3 oblong galettes

Dough Ingredients (adapted from Anna Olson):

115 grams plain flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

110 grams cold unsalted butter, diced

3 tablespoons ice cold water

½ tablespoon white vingegar

Filling:

1 large pear (I used a Sweet Sensation variety)

100 grams Nutella spread

chopped hazelnuts to sprinkle

sugar for sprinkling

1 egg

Method:

In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt and butter until the butter becomes broken down into pea sizes. You don’t want to over mix, so the butter blends in totally. 

Mix together the water and vinegar and then drizzle through the feed tube. Keep processing, just until the dough becomes a ball. Place the dough into some Clingfilm and wrap it up into a flat shape (mines was sort of square). Pop into the fridge for 20 minutes. 

In the meantime, slice your pear thinly.

After the 20 minutes, remove the dough from the fridge and divide into three pieces. Roll each piece out to about an 1/8 inch thick. My pieces were oblong shaped, but any shape works fine, as long as you can place the filling in and pull the sides up.

I spread a third of the Nutella onto each piece of dough and then layered the slices of pear. I then turned up the edges to hold in the filling. Lastly I sprinkled over some chopped hazelnuts. 

Place your galettes onto a lined baking tray and pop back into the fridge. Pre-heat your oven to 180^oC, and when the oven has come up to temp, take the galettes from the fridge and with a little egg wash (which the egg with a teaspoon of water), brush this onto the exposed pastry. 

Sprinkle over some sugar and place into the middle shelf of your oven. Bake for 20 to 25. Your pastry will turn golden brown and the pears will break down slightly when ready. I sprinkled over a little icing sugar before eating.

These are one of those bakes, when you surprise yourself. I took one mouthful and was astonished by how good it was. They are best eaten warm from the oven, so the Nutella is lovely and runny and the pears just go so well with this. And the pastry – oh my! It really was good – light, flaky and crisp. I think I am conquering one of my baking fears….enjoy!