For most of the past week I snacked on a large bag of fresh cherries that I bought at the grocery store. At the slow and steady pace at which I was eating them, I realized that I would not make it to the bottom of their bowl by the time they spoiled. To avoid wasting food, I chose to make something with them.
Most cherry pies tend to be cloyingly sweet to my taste. This recipe for cherry galette calls for sugar, but the savory and peppery flavors really come forward. If you prefer sweeter cherries, you can always add more sugar. Add a dollop of whipped cream when serving.
Explore my fascination with galettes elsewhere on this blog.
Savory Cherry Galette
Ingredients:
For the crust
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter or lard, cut into small cubes
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup ice water
- 1 egg + 1 tbsp water, whisked into an egg wash
For the filling
- 5-6 cups pitted fresh cherries
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Directions:
- Place all filling ingredients in a non-stick pot. Bring to a boil, then stir and reduce to a simmer.
- Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle cubes of butter over dough and using a pastry cutter or rounded dough scraper to cut into it until the butter breaks up into lentil-sized pieces.
- Whisk together the sour cream, apple cider vinegar and water in a small bowl. Add to the butter-flour mixture.
- Gently roll the mixture with your fingers until large lumps form. Pat the lumps into a ball. Do not knead the dough. Wrap the ball in a sheet of plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- While the dough rests in the refrigerator, continue to stir cherries until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove rosemary sprig. Remove cherries from heat and allow to cool.
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- On a piece of parchment paper, roll the dough out with a rolling pin into a 12-inch circle.
- Turn cherries out from pot onto galette pastry and spread to within one inch of the edge.
- Fold the dough in pinches around the edge of the cherries, then brush edges with egg wash. Lift the galette with the parchment paper onto a baking sheet.
- Bake galette for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden.
- Remove from oven and allow galette to rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing to serve. Top with whipped cream.
- The galette may be placed in a refrigerator overnight until ready to bake after step 9.
Place at the Table 