Mini Apple Pear Galettes

I find myself drawn to little things. You know, anything tiny equals cuteness. Like miniature ceramic tea sets, or petit fours. Or mini cheesecakes. Or mini pies. Is that a girl thing? Or just a me thing?

Anyway, I threw together these mini galettes and was quite pleased with the results. M gave them the thumbs up, too. His evaluation: "Not too sweet, just right. And I like the hand-held size. Really good. Can I have more?"

So of course I said yes. He may not be miniature, but he's definitely cute.

A word about the pie crust. I used Tiffany's Clean Eating Pie Crust recipe.  I used coconut oil and whole milk (I don't drink skim milk so we never have it on hand, and I don't cook with olive oil, so coconut is my go-to) but do what works for you. Tiffany's full recipe makes 3 (9-inch) pie crusts, so if you're using a different recipe, or a purchased pie crust, you may end up using closer to 2 (9-inch) pie crusts.

A word about sweetness. I chose to use a mix of Cortland and McIntosh apples, since they're common in my neck of the woods. These varieties aren't available everywhere, so use what's local to you. You're looking for a sweet baking apple; something that won't go to mush when it's cooked, but is pretty sweet. I chose Bartlett pears for the same reason - sweet, available to me, and bakes well.

Because the apples and pears were quite sweet, I only used 2 Tbsp sugar in the filling. You may need to increase the sugar to 1/4 c. or even 1/3 c. if you like your filling "canned-apple-pie-filling" sweet.

Cute, right? What did I tell you?! Go forth and bake!

Mini Apple Pear Galettes

by Raye

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 18-22 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert apple pear

Ingredients (8 galettes)

• 1/2 batch Clean Eating Pie Crust (or your favorite pie crust recipe - approx. 1-1/2 [9-in] pie crusts)
• 3 large, sweet apples (such as Cortland or McIntosh)
• 3 medium pears (such as Bartlett)
• 2 Tbsp evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)
• 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp butter
• approx. 2 Tbsp milk for brushing (optional)
• 1-2 Tbsp evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar) for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425*F.
• In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Peel the apples and pears and thinly slice them into the mixing bowl with the sugar/flour/spice mixture. Stir to coat well.
• Prepare pie crust dough. Roll out the dough thinly (about 1/8 inch) between two pieces of parchment paper (it's pretty sticky!). Remove the top piece of parchment paper and cut out circles from the dough. I used a 5" diameter bowl as a guide. Knead together the dough scraps and re-roll them as needed.
• Spoon a scant 1/4 c. filling into the center of each dough circle. Top with 2 or 3 tiny slivers of butter (I just slice little pieces of the end of a stick of butter).
• Carefully fold the edges of the dough up and around the filling, pinching the dough together as needed to form a sort of bowl around the filling. Use a wide pancake turner or pastry scraper to move the galettes to a rimmed baking sheet. **You may want to line your baking sheet with parchment or use a baking mat in case the juices bubble over - easier to clean!)
• Once you've finished forming all your galettes and transferring them to the baking sheet, brush each one lightly with milk and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

• Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and juices are bubbly. (The bottoms should be lightly browned as well).

• Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pan for at least 30 minutes before serving. These galettes are wonderful topped with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or just eaten out of hand!

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