Pear Galette with Whole Wheat Crust

WOW! Two months ago was my last post here. Seems like eternity... But I am back! With more energy after a good vacation, positive thoughts, new culinary experiences and a lot of tasty recipes.  With a slogan "Eat local and seasonal" I want you to try this wonderful recipe - Galette. What kind of summer without a crispy home made fruit galette?! Especially when there are so many choices of fruit, berries and other seasonal tastiness. This time I had couple of sweet pears and thus my choice was clear. An advantage of the recipe is a great combination of healthy ingredients with sweet juicy taste. If you are trying to reduce your sugar intake, this is exactly what you need. By the way, you can also try sugar-reduced version of Apple Flower Tart or sugarfree Pear Almond Tart. The first step to improve your nutrition plan is to substitute white flour with whole wheat flour. And therefore these recipes serve perfectly to #eatyourselfslim

Ingredients
180g whole wheat flour of your choice
80 g unsalted cold butter
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp ice cold water
5 medium pears
1 tbsp Demerara Black Sugar
½ Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 egg
1 tbsp hazelnuts

Mix flour and salt in a medium bowl and whisk together. Cut the butter into cubes, then add to the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or just put these ingredients into a kitchen machine. Add 4 tablespoons of ice cold water and stir in. Add the additional tablespoons of water if necessary for the dough to hold together. Shape into an circle and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for minimum 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Peel and slice the pears 0.5 -1 cm thick. Place them in a bowl adding lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and mix well. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll into a large circle, rolling from the middle out, rotating the dough every few rolls. Lay the dough onto a cooking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can also roll the dough out directly on the parchment paper, then move the parchment paper and dough to the cooking sheet.

Place the pears on the dough starting from the center and leaving 5 cm border around the edge. Gently fold the edges towards the center. Meanwhile beat the egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush the dough with beaten egg-water mix.  The pears should not be brushed. Just sprinkle them with some Demerara sugar and hazelnuts. Bake for 30 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Important is to make sure that the bottom is baked. So if needed, extend the baking time depending on galette size and oven properties.

Let it cool on the baking sheet and enjoy the summer treat with a perfect cup of coffee!

Bon Appétit!

Pear and almond tart: Sugarfree recipe

Hurra! I am happy to finalise 8-week Detox "I quit sugar" and give you my feedback. I have to say that it is quite challenging to follow this programme in the cold time of the year because our bodies are willing to gain weight before winter and our hands are unwittingly reaching out for another piece of chocolate.

Therefore I started the first week very smoothly. I still ate some fruit, excluded only the sweetest: bananas and grapes. No added sugar was not a problem for me. I anyway don't add sugar into my coffee or tea, can live without sweets and creamy cakes. What was really hard for me was to exclude dried and fresh fruit. But I managed at least to reduce them. So everything is manageable. Believe me! If I was really starving for something sweet one apple served a good source of needed energy. Or a little piece of dark chocolate (80% cocoa and higher) rescued me. During this period I educated my attitude to sugar. I really think twice before I now eat another piece of chocolate or sweet. I ask myself: "Do I really want it?" And the answer in most of the cases is: "No!". I am not sugar-addicted and my body can live happily without it. Or let's say - with reduced amount of it. I am not pretending to follow a sugar free nutrition plan. This is not my intention. The only thing I want you to understand is that our possibilities are unlimited. And we can always try something new. But we have to stay reasonable. To avoid added sugar is definitely possible and you can see that from my recipes. One of it I want to share with you today. I baked it some time ago and finally it's time!!!

As a celebration of my sugar free consciousness I present you healthy variation of pear and almond tart.

Ingredients:
(for 24-26 cm baking form)
Crust *

Filling
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1⁄2 cups raw unblanched whole almonds, finely ground
2⁄3 cup rice syrup
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1⁄4 tsp. salt
3  pears, peeled, quartered and cored
date syrup

*To prepare the crust please use my tart crust recipe for Pumpkin pie.

Prepare your crust: in a large bowl combine both types of flour with salt; using pastry blender kitchen processor, cut in butter, yogurt and banana. Pour in cold water and mix well until dough starts to hold together. Use the dough immediately, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Take the dough out of the fridge. Oil your baking form (mine was 26 cm in diameter) and place a thin layer of the crust into the form trying to make nice edges.

Bake the crust for 15 minutes.

While the crust is baking prepare your filling

In a saucepan melt the butter. Let it cool down. In a bowl mix ground almonds, rice syrup, eggs, vanilla extract and melted butter. Spread evenly in the tart shell. Slice each pear half crosswise into slices about 2-3 mm thick, keeping each one together. Put each half core side down and stem end toward the centre in the pan. Flatten the pieces and press the slices into the filling.

Bake the tart until the filling is firm to the touch in the centre and slightly golden, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Pour date syrup over the tart slice and enjoy your sweet treat ;)