Name: Easy-Fancy Pear Galette
Yield: 8–12 servings
Ingredients: ½ cup (60 g) almond flour or meal; ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar; 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour; 1 tsp. ground cardamom; 1¼ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¾ tsp. Morton kosher salt, divided; 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled, plus 1 Tbsp. room temperature; 1 tsp. almond extract; 2 large eggs; ½ cup (80 g) finely chopped candied ginger; 1 17.3-oz. or 14-oz. package frozen puff pastry, preferably all-butter, thawed; 2 15-oz. cans pear halves in light or heavy syrup, drained, thinly sliced; ¼ cup (30 g) sliced almonds; 2 Tbsp. honey; Flaky sea salt; Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (for serving; optional)

EasyFancy Pear Galette on a sheetpan cut into squares and served with ice cream.

Photograph by Rana Duzyol, Food Styling by Jesse Szewczyk, Prop Styling by Marina Bevilacqua

This pear galette recipe may look and sound fancy, but as the name promises, it’s unbelievably easy. You won’t have to worry about what kind of pears to use. (Sleepless nights debating the merits of Bartlett vs. Bosc vs. Anjou be gone!) We simplify your life by calling for canned pears—a trick borrowed from French patisseries and their elaborate pear tarts. If it’s good enough for the professionals, it’s good enough for us. This also means no poaching for you, eliminating one time-consuming step from the process. You won’t have to fuss with a pie crust either; store-bought puff pastry will do just fine for our galette dough, thank you very much, which you’ll quickly roll out on your work surface and transfer to a baking sheet, no specialty pan required.

You’ll fan the pear slices out on a gingery almond cream that gets whisked together in the blink of an eye, then line the edges of the dough with sliced almonds that get adhered with a simple egg wash. As the galette bakes, the border will puff and those almonds will toast, giving this fall dessert a nice bit of nutty crunch—a wonderful contrast to the juicy pears. Best of all, this dessert will be out of the oven and cooling before your aunt has finished cutting the fruit for her famous apple pie. Why don’t you go over and give her a hand?