Pear & Fontina Galette

Start your grill and prepare for indirect cooking at 375ºF, or preheat your oven to 375ºF.

Combine the brown sugar, flour and pumpkin pie spice in a small bowl and mix well with a fork. Set aside.

Peel the pears (optional, but I did) and cut them lengthwise into quarters. Remove the core from each quarter and slice them to about 1/4″ slices and put them into a medium mixing bowl.

Add the sugar, flour, and spice mixture to the pears, fold gently to coat the pears evenly, and set aside.

Put your pie crust into a shallow pie pan. Arrange the cheese slices evenly in the flat bottom of the pie crust.

Pour the pear mixture into a pile in the flat bottom of the crust. You want to leave the sides uncovered.

Fold the very top edge of the crust up and flatten it to a consistent thickness. You want to create smooth sides.

Gently fold over the sides of the crust in sixths (folding the sides in and over the filling) and pinch the extra dough together to form an appealing edge.

Thoroughly whisk the egg and one teaspoon of water in a small mixing bowl. Brush the crust edges with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar.

Cook indirectly on your grill (or bake on the center rack of your oven) for 40 minutes, or until the crust is just golden brown.

While the galette is cooking, whisk the apricot preserves and 2 tablespoons of water in a small mixing bowl until smooth.

After 40 minutes of baking, drizzle the exposed pears with about three tablespoons of the thinned preserves and cook another 10 minutes.

Remove from the grill/oven and let cool 20-30 minutes.

Slice and serve with a drizzle of the remaining preserve mixture.

Enjoy!

Note: This pairs (no pun intended) very well with a nice dessert wine. Or, skip the wine and serve it warm with some vanilla bean ice cream.