Neiman Marcus Pear Galette with Caramel Sauce, Exquisite!

I know that most of you know that I attended a French culinary school, but I promise you, the  ease of making these pear galettes with caramel sauce has nothing to do with a French cooking school. This recipe is delicious, and easy to make. You can do this. And, after you make this, you will want to turn this easy pastry into ideas of your own. Believe me when I tell you that I am already carried away by the thoughts of what I can do with this basic recipe.

By the way, I’d like to change the name of the caramel sauce to, “Oh my gosh, you won’t believe how good this sauce is!”

Neiman-Marcus food. The first time I ate there was on a business trip to Dallas. I was staying at a beautiful downtown hotel for a week. I wanted to visit Neiman’s while there and arrived at the store late one morning.

Yes, I shopped, but I also looked. Just looked, especially at the beautiful evening gowns. Some of them weighing more than 25 pounds because of the jewels or beads. Most of them over $25,000.00. I found the lifestyle promoted by the store to be so different than our stores in Charleston.  I was fascinated.

While there, one of the women that I spoke with asked me if I’d had lunch in the dining room, and I had not, so curiously I went there. I decided to have lunch and that was the first time I had eaten Neiman’s famous chicken salad. At my cozy table, I was first served a small cup of  consommé.  After the consommé the famous chicken salad was served in a small, orange gelatin ring. It was delicious. Since that time, I’ve been smitten and make the chicken salad often.

This particular recipe for the galettes came from Neiman Marcus Taste, Timeless American Food. The galettes in the book are served with coconut ice cream on top, but I didn’t make it because I didn’t need it to make this an excellent dessert. I also hope the chef won’t mind that I’ve modified the recipe for the galettes based on what I could find at my own market. Most of this change is a matter of what we have available here, versus restaurant food.

Here we go-

For the pear galettes:

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed according to package directions (available in the frozen food section of grocery store)

6 teaspoons almond paste-as listed in original recipe if you can find it, but it was not available when I checked, so I used an almond paste bar (found at World Market in my town) and cut about a tablespoon for each pastry, or enough to roll out very thin, and place on the top of each puff pastry round to within 1/4 inch of the edge

lemon juice

2  firm Bartlett or Anjou pears, peeled, cored, and very thinly sliced (put sliced pears in lemon juice until ready to place on the pastry round)

3 tablespoons white or natural sugar

3 teaspoon unsalted butter (1/2 teaspoon to top easy pastry)

1/3 cup warmed apple jelly

To prepare the galettes, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly roll out any creases in the puff pastry. Use a knife to cut 6 circles of puff pastry, each about 5 inches across. Place each puff pastry round on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread 1 teaspoon of the almond paste, leaving a 1/4-inch border around each pastry.  *I could not find almond paste, so  I rolled out a very thin piece of almond paste from the bar and placed it on the pastry rounds to within 1/4-inch of the edge of each pastry. Place thin slices of pear on top of the almond paste. Sprinkle each pastry with a half tablespoon natural sugar, or white sugar if natural sugar is not available. Place 1/2 teaspoon butter in middle of each pastry. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly brown. When lightly brown, remove the baking sheet from the oven, and turn the oven to broil. Leave the oven rack where it was when baking. Use a pastry brush and brush melted apple jelly all over the top and side of each pastry. WATCH closely. Put back in the oven until the pastry starts to become deep golden brown, as you see in the photo. Remove to a rack until ready to serve with the caramel sauce. To serve, put caramel sauce on the bottom of each dessert plate. Place the galettes on top of the caramel sauce. Add a scoop of ice cream if you wish.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 cup heavy cream (warmed)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

To make the caramel sauce, add the sugars, and corn syrup to a heavy pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Continue to cook until the mixture begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the heavy cream, lemon juice and butter and keep stirring until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use, and reheat to use with the pears.