Persimmon Galette with Mascarpone Filling

December 28, 2018

I like to keep my New Year’s Eve pretty low-key. It involves close friends, boozy beverages, and good simple comfort food. Galettes are my favorite dessert to make for simple get togethers, since they’re super quick and easy to make, don’t involve any fancy crust work or decorations, and are *really* hard to mess up (even if you’re enjoying a holiday beverage or two while you make them.) This persimmon galette may look deceptively fancy, but the mandolin does all the work here. All you have to do is lay the slices on top of a smear of mascarpone filling, fold the edges of the crust, and voila! You’ve made a fancy-looking galette that took less than 30 minutes to put together. Well done, you!

And if you happen to be wondering “wtf is a persimmon?”, let me tell you all about it. So it’s basically a tender-fleshed fruit that grows on a tree, and its flavor is similar to a tomato but sweeter and without the goopy seed pulp inside. It’s like if a fruit was just composed of the wall-part of the tomato, and sweeter. There are two types of persimmons out there, and I recommend using hachiya persimmons because they are taller and acorn-shaped and will slice a lot better on the mandolin. HOWEVER, they are very astringent if unripe, so it’s super important to let those babies get nice and soft before you cook with them. I recommend speeding up the process by putting them in a brown paper bag on the kitchen counter and letting them site at room temp for a few days. Just give them a gentle squeeze each day to see if they’ve gotten ripe. When ripe, they will be very very soft and smell fragrant when you sniff them.

Persimmons are in season October through February, so you should be able to find them at any organic market and most regular grocery stores this time of year. They’re a great substitute for raw tomatoes in any dish, since they share similar flavors and textures. A ripe hachiya persimmon is sweeter than a ripe tomato, however, so you might want to add a dash of extra salt to any savory dishes to counterbalance the sweetness (there’s nothing like that the combination of sweet and salty flavors together to really make the mouth water). I hope you guys all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve—whether that be lounging on the sofa with your pets and some wine or out dancing the night away at a party, have fun, be safe, and I can’t wait to share more good food with you in the New Year!

Persimmon Galette with Mascarpone Filling

This persimmon galette contains layers of persimmons soaked in a cinnamon syrup, with a vanilla mascarpone filling underneath, wrapped in a flakey crust. It’s beautiful, delicious, and best of all, is very fast and easy to make!

Persimmon Filling

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
3 hachiya persimmons ((these are the long acorn-shaped ones))

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter cold and hard
3 – 5 tablespoons ice water
1 whole egg whisked (for egg wash)

Mascarpone Filling

1/4 cup mascarpone (room temperature)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 /2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Persimmon Filling

Bring the sugar, water, and cinnamon stick to a boil in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking until the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes, stirring once. Remove from heat and pour the syrup into a wide shallow dish.
Cut the top 1/4-inch off the tops of the persimmons (aka the pat with the green stuff on it) and discard/compost the tops. Use a mandolin to slice the persimmons very thinly across the equator. As you’re working, place the sliced persimmons in the cinnamon syrup.

Crust

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and nutmeg until combined. Cut the butter into small pieces above the bowl, stopping to stir and coat the butter bits in the flour mixture every few minutes.
Pinch the mixture together with your fingertips until it resembles the texture of damp sand. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, mixing it with a fork, until the dough just holds together when you squeeze a fistful of it in your hand. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Mascarpone Filling

In a small bowl, whisk together the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon until smooth.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a lipped baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.brush with egg wash sprinkle with sugar freeze for 20 minutes before baking
Roll out the dough into a circle on a clean work surface until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Transfer to the parchment paper-lined pan. Use a spatula to spread the mascarpone on the center of the crust, leaving an empty 2-inch border around the edges.
Take a persimmon slice out of the syrup and pat it gently on a paper towel. Starting at the edge of the mascarpone, lay the persimmon slices down in a spiral shape that eventually ends in the center of the galette.
Fold the empty 2-inch border up over the filling, brushing egg wash between the touching creases of the crust to help them stay folded.
Brush all of the exposed crust with the egg wash, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and freeze for 20 minutes. Bake the galette at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the crust is golden, about 1 hour. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before slicing and serving.