The baked goods.

As I said b4, we had two loaves of whole wheat rosemary bread at our Thanksgiving, and finished the meal off with a whole-grain pear-almond tart. I’m saving these two items for last, even though I started them earlier than anything else.

Whole Wheat Rosemary Bread:
The bread was made using our go-to recipe from vegweb, with a few additions and substitutions.
2 3/4c warm water
1/3 c olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sea salt
7c flour, divided
2 tbsp active dry yeast.
a LOT of fresh rosemary (like 7 sprigs)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Put water, oil, honey, and salt in the bowl and mix together. Add 2 cups of flour and mix. Then add the yeast. Then add 4 more cups of flour and mix until even. Your dough will be super sticky. Add the final cup of flour so the dough stops sticking to the bowl.

Turn off the oven, cover the bowl with a cloth, and stick in the oven with the door OPEN (you want a warm environment for the dough to rise). Let rise for 30-45 minutes. Punch the dough down, turn onto a floured board, and knead. Fold the rosemary in at this point. Divide into two balls, put onto a greased baking sheet, cover again with a cloth, and let rise until doubled, about another 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350.

Pop the bread into the oven and bake for about 36 minutes. Put on a rack to cool. It’s so good with roasted garlic.

Whole Grain Pear-Almond Tart:
2c whole wheat flour
1c oats, finely ground in a food processor or blender or any other thing that smashes food into smaller bits.
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger (or you could use fresh and throw it in the processor with the oats)
1/3c oil (I used almond oil, but vegetable/olive/any nut oil would work)
1/2c water
1/2tsp honey
1 tbsp almond milk (unsweetened, unflavored)

Start by mixing together the dry ingredients (flour/oats/ginger/salt). Then, make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in the oil. Incorporate that, then add the water and honey. At this point the dough was way too crumbly, so I added in almond milk. About 1 tbsp did the trick for me, but use as much or as little as you need to get the dough to come together. At this point I rolled it into a smooth ball, double-wrapped it in saran wrap, and popped that sucker in the fridge overnight. If you’re doing it the day of, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To make the filling, you’ll need:
3 bosc pears, cored and thinly sliced
3 tbsp honey, divided
1 tsp ground ginger
3-4 tbsp almond meal
oil or 1 egg, beaten (if yr not vegan)

Take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit for at least 20 minutes so it can warm up. While that’s going on, put the pears, honey, and ginger in a bowl. Let that sit, preheat your oven to 375, and relax for a second.

Then, roll out the dough until even (I used a can of beans because my rolling pin was god knows where). Spread the almond meal around in the center of the crust, then layer the pear mixture on top of that. Fold the dough up so that only the center is exposed.  The best thing about free form tarts (or rustic tarts or crostata or gallettes or whatever) is that they don’t have to look good. You can literally be hammered out of your gourd or half asleep and still make this and it won’t matter.

If you eat eggs, brush the beaten egg on top of the crust. If you don’t eat eggs, don’t do this (duh). You can use oil, or you can skip the step completely. Bake for 45-50 minutes on a baking sheet until the pears are bubbly and soft and the crust looks crusty (duh?!?!) and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool. We ate it by itself, but I bet it would go SO well with some ice cream on top.

The great part about this pie is that it’s delicious but also totally good for you. My boyfriend ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning (without the side of guilt that most of us have when we eat dessert for breakfast). Thanksgiving: success.

-K