This Pear & Brown Butter Caramel Galette is the kind of dessert that was made for cosy Sunday roasts with friends. It’s comforting, not too heavy and brimming with rustic charm that lends to its just-got-of-bed-but-still-looking-great beauty.
This dessert can be made in advance but it’s also an easy one to get friends involved with and is endlessly customisable. There will always be a place for laborious pies and tarts, but I believe there’s an even bigger place for easy-to-assemble puddings that leave you with more time in friends company.
Pre-made ready-rolled shortcrust pastry is used in this recipe which means that this easy dessert requires skills in “assemblage” more than baking. You could use puff pastry instead of shortcrust if you want something that feels a bit lighter and more like a Tarte Tatin. I like shortcrust pastry here because it feels more like a heartier pudding that stands up to pears and custard well.
Pear and caramel is a dreamy Autumnal pairing which is made even better by the use of browned butter to make the caramel. Browned butter is the process of cooking butter a little past the melting point which results in the browning of the milk solids. This caramelisation process results in a toasty, nutty flavour which adds complexity to any dishes, sweet and savoury alike. This recipe yields more caramel than you need for the galette itself, however I think it is always worth making a little more of these types of components as they can be used in so many other ways. Drizzle the leftover caramel over your breakfast porridge, pancakes, dip slices of apple into it or mix it into popcorn. If you good quality shop-want to simplify this recipe even further then you could use a good quality shop-bought salted caramel sauce.
Feel free to experiment with the choice of fruit also, apples would work well or any stone fruit. It isn’t necessary to fan the pears out into a pleasing shape either – I think it looks just as gorgeous with randomly arranged slices of fruit plonked on top of the pastry.
