Bready or Not: Maple Pear Galette
It’s my husband’s birthday, so I’m sharing a dessert that he looooves.
This recipe laces maple sugar into every layer: the galette dough, the thick maple paste for the pears, and as a golden accent and perfect crunch for the top of the galette.
This is remarkably easy to make, too. Peeling and coring the pears is the biggest hassle. I made the dough a day ahead of time, which made the assembly part go pretty fast.
I modified this recipe from one found in this incredible cookbook called Maple by Katie Webster. Seriously, if you love maple used in dishes for any meal of the day, get this cookbook!
This galette is one of the three recipes I melded together to create my Maple Apple Pie (aka Voltron Pie). Specifically, I tweaked the maple-lemon paste for the filling and ported it over. I’m pretty certain that such a potent maple mix can improve anything. Maybe it can inspire world peace. I dunno.
In the case of this galette, though, I say give a piece a chance.
Bready or Not: Maple Pear Galette
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour divided, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons maple sugar divided
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 - 6 Tablespoons ice water
- 1 vanilla bean split open and scraped out, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 ripe pears peeled, cored, and cut into wedges
- 1 egg lightly beaten
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the 1 1/4 cups flour, 1 tablespoon maple sugar, and salt. Add butter and work into dough so that the butter is down to pea-sized chunks. Add just enough water to incorporate as dough, smearing butter chunks in the process. Shape dough into a disk and shroud in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes, or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Place parchment paper on a large rimmed baking sheet.
- In a large bowl, gently stir together the vanilla (bean or extract), lemon juice, 2 tablespoons flour, and 1/2 cup maple sugar; it will form a thick paste. Gently stir in the pears to coat. Expect the mixture to become more liquid as it sits with the pears in it.
- Use flour to lightly dust a large work surface. Roll out the dough to at least a foot diameter circle. Transfer it to the prepared parchment paper on baking sheet; the dough might hang over the edges for now, but that's okay.
- Arrange the pears in a circular pattern in the center; leave a 2.5 to 3-inch border. Scrape the rest of the maple paste over the pears. Fold the dough inward, with the center still exposed. Brush the egg over the top and sprinkle on the maple sugar.
- Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling bubbles. Let cool before cutting.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Maple Glaze
CAKE + PIE MONTH continues with another dose of maple–this time in the glaze atop this tender cinnamon-filled bundt cake!
If you don’t have maple flavor around, worry not. This cake will be just fine if you use vanilla extract instead. You could always add more cinnamon into the glaze, too, just for a spicy boost.
I love using sour cream in cake batter like this. It creates such a tender, moist texture. You can always substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream, too.
I spied the original version of this recipe in the Arizona Republic one morning. I knew I had to make it… but I also knew it needed some modifications. How could it be called a cinnamon coffee cake if it only had one teaspoon of cinnamon? Nope, nope. And of course, I had to give it a maple glaze.
If you’re getting burned out on maple (*cough*blasphemy*cough*), worry not. Next week, I finish off Cake + Pie Month with Cardamom Coffee Pound Cake! Unlike this week’s recipe, the pound cake actually includes coffee in the batter and in the glaze.
But, you know, I think this week’s recipe has a mighty fine glaze as it is.
Modified from Sour Cream Cinnamon Coffee Cake in the Arizona Republic, March 16, 2016.
Bready or Not: Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Maple Glaze
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
For the glaze:
- 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1 Tablespoon milk or half and half
- 1/2 teaspoon maple flavor or substitute vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Use nonstick spray with flour to thoroughly coat a 9 or 10-inch bundt pan, or use extra butter and a liberal dusting of flour. Discard any excess flour.
- In a large bowl, beat together the 1 cup butter and the sugar until they are light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla and sour cream.
- In a smaller bowl, combine the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Slowly combine the two bowls; don't overmix. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread so the top is even.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick deeply inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes on wire rack, then flip the cake out of the pan to completely cool on the rack.
- When the cake is completely cool, make the glaze. In a small bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, milk, and maple flavor (or vanilla extract). Add more milk, if needed, for desired textured. Set cake on a serving plate and dribble glaze all over top of cake.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Maple Apple Pie
This pie is my own original creation. I hacked together three existing recipes and amped up the maple to make something totally new. When I told my husband about how I melded everything, he said, “Oh, so it’s a Voltron pie.” That’s now our nickname for this Maple Apple Pie.
Maple sugar is the key ingredient in every step, but it’s just enough to embody the flavor without it going overkill. I highly recommend buying a big ol’ container of maple sugar–trust me, if you want to follow along with my recipes, you’ll go through it eventually. This is the brand I use:
The most amazing thing about this? The filling sauce. I borrowed and modified it from a pear galette recipe (which I’ll feature this fall) from the cookbook Maple. It’s really more like a paste in texture, grainy and strong with a lovely combo of maple and lemon. You’ll want to lick the bowl.
This pie smells glorious. It’s like autumn, Thanksgiving, Christmas. And the taste… well. My husband adores my Caramel Apple Pie and considers it his all-time favorite.
Or it was, until he had Voltron Pie.
That’s right. This maple-filled pie is the new champion in the Cato household.
Bready or Not: Maple Apple Pie
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon maple sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cube, cold
- 2 Tablespoons avocado oil or canola oil
- 3 - 5 Tablespoons ice water
Filling:
- 4 - 5 Granny Smith apples
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or a vanilla bean, scraped
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup maple sugar
Crumb topping:
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup maple sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick , cold
Instructions
- Combine crust ingredients. Work in butter until it is just pea-sized, and use only as much water as needed to make the dough cohesive. Wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or a few days.
- Roll out dough to equal thickness and place in pie dish. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze while preparing the filling, or freeze for several days.
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees. Peel and core apples and slice to 1/8s or smaller. Toss them in a light dusting of flour to prevent sticking. Place apples in pie crust on a cookie sheet.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the vanilla extract, lemon juice, flour, and maple sugar; it'll form a thick maple paste. Set aside.
- In another small bowl, combine the topping ingredients. Use a fork and knife to reduce the butter to pea-sized chunks.
- Return to the maple sauce. Give it a good stir, and drizzle thick syrup all over apples. Cover evenly with crumb topping.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the apples are tender when stabbed with a fork.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Maple Sour Cream Bundt Cake
IT IS BOOK RELEASE MONTH. IT IS CAKE AND PIE MONTH. Oddly enough, the emphasis will be on maple. Gee, you might think I like the stuff.
I am starting out with what might be the best bundt cake recipe I have ever made. Yes, it even rivals the infamous Tunnel of Fudge Cake.
This recipe is extremely close in flavor and texture to the holy-moley-amazing Maple Walnut Cake, minus the walnuts. The Maple Walnut Cake is stunning to eat but it’s also very time-consuming to make because it’s a layer cake.
This bundt cake is EASY. It whips together in no time.
The cake itself is like a moist pound cake–soft, tender, and sweet with maple.
I opted for a glaze rather than a frosting. Tweak the liquids to make that as thick as you want, but really, the cake is sweet on its own so you don’t need a big layer here.
Some of these pictures look almost pornographic, don’t they?
Yes, the glaze is as good as it looks. You can’t go wrong with powdered sugar, cinnamon, butter, and maple flavor. Well. I guess you can go wrong if you’re diabetic.
CONSUME AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Modified from Overtime Cook.
Bready or Not: Maple Sour Cream Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 5 eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple flavor optional but recommended
- 1 cup pure maple syrup NOT flavored pancake syrup
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tb unsalted butter melted
- 3/4 tsp maple flavor or vanilla extract
- 1 Tb water more as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325-degrees. Spray a bundt pan with nonstick spray with added flour, or grease well and sift flour over the surface.
- In large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour in the vanilla extract, maple flavor, and maple syrup.
- In a small bowl, sift together the baking powder and flour. Add some of the flour mix to the big bowl, followed by sour cream, going back and forth until all of the cake ingredients are mixed together.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until it passes the toothpick test. Let it cool for about ten minutes in the pan and then carefully plop the cake onto a wire rack to completely cool down. Once it is room temperature, it's time to glaze.
- Mix together all of the glaze ingredients together EXCEPT the water. Dribble in the water. Stir well. Add more water if needed to achieve desired consistency.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bonus Bready or Not: No-Bake Maple Macadamia Nut Energy Bars (Gluten Free)
Maple Macadamia Nut Energy Bars. I have my new favorite quick-fix breakfast.
When I think of summer snacks, I think 1) no oven on to heat up my house, 2) quick to make amid writing deadlines and my son’s therapies, and 3) DELICIOUS. To me, maple is delicious, and that kind of awesomeness should not be confined to a single season.
These bars blend up in a few minutes in a food processor or high-powered blender. Mash them in a lined loaf pan, let them chill, slice, eat. Try not to eat them all in one sitting. After all, these are packed with vitamins and healthy stuff–and no gluten!
The primary flavors are maple and macadamia infused with white chocolate, with the coconut mild in the background. These are dense in texture. I have made many variations of energy bars/truffles using dates like this, but I have never added almond flour before. Wow. It doesn’t add a strong almond flavor, but it does fill in those nooks and crannies. Everything melds together.
I don’t understand why more people aren’t creating recipes with maple, macadamia nuts, and white chocolate. If someone needs to start the trend, well, I volunteer as tribute.
Some other energy bars/truffles featured on Bready or Not:
– Blueberry Muffin Breakfast Truffles
– Chocolate-Coffee Truffles
– Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Breakfast Bites
– Maple Energy Bars/Bites
Bonus Bready or Not: No-Bake Maple Macadamia Nut Energy Bars (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup almond flour or meal
- 6 medjool dates chopped, about 1/2 cup
- 2 Tablespoons shredded coconut
- 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon maple flavor
- 1/4 cup cashews
- 1/4 cup macadamia nuts divided
- 2 Tablespoons white chocolate chips or vanilla chips
Instructions
- Prepare a loaf pan by lining the long sides with either waxed paper or parchment paper, with the paper sticking up on either side like a sling.
- In a food processor, add the almond flour, chopped dates, coconut, maple syrup, cashews, and most of the macadamia nuts. Set aside the reserved macadamias and white chocolate.
- Run the food processor until everything inside is ground down. The mix should stick together if you pinch it between your fingers; if it's not cohesive, drizzle in a tiny amount of water and pulse again.
- Add the remaining macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips. Pulse a few times to chop them up a little and distribute them.
- Pour into the loaf pan. Use a spatula to compress everything. Chill in fridge for at least an hour.
- Use the sling to lift up the macadamia mix. Slice into bars. Store in a sealed container in fridge.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Maple Nut Butter
Peanut butter can be bought for cheap. Other nut butters? Not so much. The good news is, with a food processor and about 20 minutes of spare time, you can make your own amazing nut butter!
Me being me, I make MAPLE NUT BUTTER. I have done this two ways: with 1 cup each of almonds and cashews, and also with 2 cups of cashews. Other nut combos should work just fine, too. The end yield will be somewhere about 1 1/2 cups nut butter.
I priced and researched food processors for about a year until I caved in and bought a lovely refurbished Cuisinart model. This baby does the job. I’m pretty darn happy with it.
I combined a few recipes to make my own original version. I will type out the details of each stage in the full recipe below, but let’s illustrate in pictures first.
You toss the nuts in maple syrup and toast them in the oven. Let them cool a bit before processing them.
The ground nuts looks like coarse nut flour at first. They will gum up the blades every minute or so. I stop and scrape the sides often.
Then things start to get clumpy. Those lumps will migrate around on the blades like a glacier.
Keep on processing, and after about 15 minutes, you get that. Almost smooth nut butter! After a few more minutes it gets even smoother, and that is when you add spice, flavor, and a bit of oil.
I seal the nut butter in jars and store them in the fridge. Try to use it up within a month. It will be dryer than the standard store stuff, but you can always mix in a little more oil. I like avocado oil because it’s almost tasteless. The nut butter itself is the tastiest nut butter you’ll ever have. It just screams of maple and cinnamon and freshness.
Ready for the recipe? Okay!
Bready or Not: Maple Nut Butter
Ingredients
Toast
- 2 cups nuts 1 cups almonds + 1 cup cashews, or 2 cups cashews, or try other combos
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
After processing
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple flavor optional, but adds oomph
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon avocado oil or other oil, more as needed
- sprinkle sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 325-degrees. Line a rimmed baking pan with sturdy aluminum foil. In the pan, toss the two cups of nuts with maple syrup until they are coated. Toast for about 15 minutes, checking about every 5 minutes to toss the nuts around. Let the nuts cool for 30 minutes or so.
- Add the nuts to a food processor. (Note that you'll need to pry some off the foil.) Put the lid on and start processing. Run for 2 to 3 minutes then scrape down sides. The mix will look coarse and gritty.
- Continue processing, pausing every 1 or 2 minutes to scrape sides of bowl. Mixture will start to clump together.
- Continue grinding. The nuts will release more oil and start to smooth out more. Continue to stop and scrape the sides every 2 minutes or so to give the machine a break. After about 10 total minutes, it will look like nut butter but it won't be done yet!
- Continue processing. It will smooth out and finally evolve to a liquid-like form that snakes across the blades. This will be at about the 15 to 20 minute point. Add the rest of the ingredients and process another minute or so to blend together. Taste test to see if you need to tweak things.
- Transfer the nut butter to mason jars to store in the fridge for up to four weeks. If it seems especially dry, mix in a drizzle of oil.
- OM NOM NOM!
