Spring / Summer is the ideal time of the year to make fruit-based desserts. I am a big fan of rustic galettes, a French pastry similar to an English tart or an American pie. This Rustic Cherry Galette is delicious, easy to make and the perfect way to showcase the most beautiful summer cherries!
What is your favourite summer fruit?
It’s hard for me to pick just one as I love all the sweet berries and stone fruits. Lately though, I have become obsessed with cherries. Perhaps it’s because they are so sweet and abundant here in Poland at this time of the year. They are also a lot cheaper here than in London, so I am making the most of it!
My husband loves cherries as well so naturally they were my first choice for this rustic galette.
A galette is essentially pastry dough made with flour, butter, water and salt. The flaky dough is easily mixed using just your hands or a stand mixer (with a beater/paddle attachment) if you don’t want to work butter and flour together by hand.
The dough should always be prepared in advance for best results and kept in the fridge for a few hours until it’s time to use.
In a sweet galette, the pastry dough is wrapped over a filling of fresh fruit and fruit jam. You can use just about any seasonal fruit that you love!
You can make savoury galettes too. I love this Summer tomato galette recipe by Edd Kimber (The Boy Who Bakes).
I adapted (only slightly) a recipe I found on Apt. 2B Baking Co. by Yossy Arefi (a.k.a. the queen of galettes).
Yossy is a baker, food photographer and food stylist based in New York City. I absolutely love her Instagram feed (@yossyarefi)! You can find more of her recipes in her cookbook Sweeter off the Vine.
Note: the original recipe for the pastry crust on Yossy’s blog has double the amount of ingredients, because she makes enough dough for 2 galettes. You can make one today and freeze the other for another day (which is also what I did). However, to make the recipe easier to follow, I have listed here the exact ingredients and measurements to make 1 galette with cherry filling.
Rustic Cherry Galette
Ingredients
Makes one 8-inch galette.
For the pastry
170g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
125g cold unsalted butter, cut in small cubes
1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar*
60ml ice cold water
For the cherry filling
340g fresh cherries, pitted and halved
160g cherry jam
50g white sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp lemon zest
pinch of salt
1 egg (for egg wash)
2 tsp light brown sugar, for sprinkling
*because I didn’t have apple cider vinegar at home, I replaced it with an equal amount of lemon juice.
Preparation
Combine the apple cider vinegar and ice water. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour and salt together. Working quickly, add the butter to the flour and toss to coat. Use your hands to press each cube of butter into a flat sheet. Keep tossing the butter in the flour as you go to ensure that each butter piece is coated with flour. If the butter becomes too soft, briefly refrigerate the bowl.
Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of the icy cold vinegar-water mixture over the flour mixture. Use your hands hand or a wooden spoon to stir the water into the flour until just combined. If the dough seems dry, add more cold water – one teaspoon at a time. You have added enough water when you can pick up a handful of the dough and easily squeeze it together without it falling apart.
Press the dough together, form a disk and wrap it in cling film. Chill the dough for a minimum of two hours (preferably overnight).
Preheat oven to 200°C fan. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Combine the sugar, flour, lemon zest and pinch of salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the cherries, without stirring.
On a lightly floured counter, roll the pastry dough into a 3-6mm thick circle. Transfer the pastry to a paper-lined baking sheet.
Spread the jam over the centre of the pastry. Gently stir the fruit mixture until well combined, then gently pour it over the jam. Fold the edges of the dough up and over the cherries. Press the folds gently to seal. Refrigerate the galette until the dough is very firm.
Before baking, brush the galette with egg wash and sprinkle with light brown sugar.
Position the baking sheet in the lower third of the oven. Bake for around 45-55 minutes (or until the pastry is a deep golden brown and the fruit jam filling is bubbling).
Pin This!
