Pear & honey mini galettes

This time last week, I was waking up from a nap, with a pounding headache and a strange sense of home that contradicts everything I wrote about in my past post.

Pear & honey mini galettes // The Littlest BakehouseIf you’re expecting this to be a romantic story about friendship and discussing deep issues under the stars…you’re going to be disappointed. At a friend’s place, we were far enough out of London to actually see the stars, but bank holiday Friday was a night of tequila shots and pizza, cookies baked at 1am and so many ridiculous stories that will become part of the lore of our group. The weekend has been the subject of a number of flashbacks throughout the week that have left me burying my face in my hands, half in laughter and half in disbelief. In short, it was excellent.

I woke up the next morning in a room so bright it felt like the sun was sitting right there outside the window, successfully avoided careering into a wardrobe while manoeuvring around the mess, and mostly got through it by dreaming about the milkshake I’d have at the end of the long, long journey home*. But in between groans of, “When am I allowed more painkillers?” and listening to the rattle of beer cans as they hit one another in a rapidly-filling carrier bag, I felt lucky. As I drifted in and out of sleep next to a friend I am so thankful is in this city now, filling the wakeful moments with  quiet chat and gulping, raucous laughter, I realised the view to the future looks pretty good. You know, once I got that wading-through-treacle trudge home sorted.

But I also felt like there was no way I’d be able to come home and cook something for a blog post, so instead you’re getting the little galettes I made with the half-packet of pastry leftover from the balsamic strawberry galette. Bonus: these are much quicker. No macerating here, just a light poach, a brush of honey, and off we go. Easy enough to handle even on a medium-strength wine-and-tequila hangover.

 

*I didn’t have that milkshake, in the end. Growing up with life-long dieters means you cannot avoid a milkshake’s nutritional value, or lack thereof.

Just one other thing! While we’re on pastry – check out this blueberry pie at The Pastry Affair. It looks so delicious.

Service announcement over, let’s get to the good stuff.

Pear & honey mini galettes with ricotta

Yields 4 mini galettes

Ingredients

1 tbsp sugar
125g ricotta
2 pears
1.5 tbsp icing sugar + some to dust
200g sweet shortcrust pastry
2 tbsp honey

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Mix the icing sugar into the ricotta, until smooth, and refrigerate.
  2. Top and tail the pears, peel them, and cut into slices about 4mm thick. Add to a saucepan of just-boiled water, over a medium heat, and poach just for a couple of minutes. Drain.
  3. Divide the pastry into four balls, roll out to 3-4mm thick, and transfer to the baking tray. Drop a generous teaspoon of the sweetened ricotta into the centre of each piece and use the back of the spoon to spread it to about 1inch from the edge of the pastry.
  4. Layer the pear slices on top, overlapping slightly, and fold the edges in, a bit at a time, naturally creating pleats. Gently heat the honey in a small saucepan to thin it, then use a pastry brush to brush it over each galette.
  5. Bake for around 40 minutes at the centre of the oven, until the pastry is golden. Brush again with honey and soon as they’re out of the oven.
  6. Allow to cool before dusting with icing sugar, and serve with the leftover sweetened ricotta.

3 thoughts on “Pear & honey mini galettes

  1. Hannah Jade says:

    My Leith’s-trained flatmate ate one and went, “You know what I’m going to say? Your pastry is great.”

    Jus-Rol’s finest.

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