pear galette with toffee sauce

I have a problem. I cannot stop making pies. Seriously. I was home sick with a cold on Friday and made two pies. (Yeah, some people watch TV when they're sick, I bake.) And I'm not even ashamed to say that the two pies from Friday were gone by the time Sunday arrived.

So I made two more.

I took my favorite pie crust recipe and combined it with pear slices, a shake of cinnamon, and some homemade toffee sauce to drizzle over the top. Okay...to POUR over the top. Who drizzles anyway?

Not this girl.

This recipe makes extra toffee sauce, too. I may or may not have spooned it into my mouth directly from the bowl. I was also thinking it would be great in a toffee bread pudding.

Why don't you come over and I'll bake some more?



pear galette with toffee sauce

crust ingredients
This recipe makes enough for two pie crusts - or two galettes. I make an all-butter crust, because, let's face it, butter rules. This is my go-to pie crust recipe.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup cold water
1 egg white (for brushing on at end)

filling ingredients
2-3 pears (apples would work well too), sliced
Cinnamon (enough to sprinkle all over the fruit)

toffee sauce ingredients
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

make the pie crusts:
Mix 2 cups of flour with the butter in a food processor. Pulse a few times to break up the butter. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour and pulse 3 times. Don't over-mix. Pour the flour/butter mixture into a large bowl and sprinkle the water on top. Mix with your hands until everything clumps together. Shape into two discs. You could freeze one of the discs for later, or make two galettes (you can guess what I did).

make the toffee sauce:
Combine the cream, sugar, butter, and salt in a small saucepan. Simmer until butter is melted and then increase heat for 10 minutes until toffee sauce congeals and reduces. Voila! Toffee sauce! Try to resist eating this straight from the saucepan (I failed at this).

assemble the galettes:
Roll out one disc of dough between two pieces of floured parchment paper (seriously do this, it takes all the heartache out of rolling pie dough) until it is roughly 10-11 inches wide. Peel the parchment paper from one side and place dough on your cooking tray (i use a cookie sheet). Remove other piece of parchment paper.

Layer the pear or apple slices in a circle, leaving about 2 inches of crust free on all sides. Sprinkle with copious amounts of cinnamon. Pour some toffee sauce on (save the rest for later). Start folding the dough over the fruit, overlapping the pieces as you go. Brush the crust with egg white. If you have a serious sweet tooth, sprinkle some coarse sugar over everything.

Pop in a 375F oven and bake for 50 minutes, until everything is browned and bubbling. Repeat with the second disc of dough. When pie has cooled down slightly (or not) pour toffee sauce over slices and enjoy.

PS: I find a pizza cutter to be the best way to slice these kinds of pies. I know that after butchering two galettes with knives (don't worry, I still ate it all).