Rustic Cherry Galette with Almond
Two pounds of sweet cherries on one round of all-butter dough, folded up at the edges and baked on a sheet pan. Almond flour under the fruit keeps the base crisp and three tablespoons of cornstarch keep the juice where it belongs.
Ingredients
For the All-Butter Crust
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter very cold, cut into cubes
- 5 tablespoons ice water 4 to 6, depending on your flour
For the Cherry Filling
- 2 pounds sweet cherries pitted, a little over 4 cups
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar a full cup if you are using sour cherries
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice sweet cherries have almost no acid of their own
- 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract no more than this
- 2 tablespoons almond flour or fine dry breadcrumbs, to go under the fruit
To Finish
- 1 large egg for the wash
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream beaten into the egg
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar or any coarse sugar
Equipment
- Parchment paper
- rimmed sheet pan
- Mixing bowl
- Wire rack
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Whisk the flour and the fine sea salt together in a bowl. Rub or cut in the cold butter until the largest pieces are about the size of a lima bean and the rest looks like coarse meal. Visible flakes of butter are what you are after, so stop well before it looks uniform.
- Sprinkle in the ice water a tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork, and stop as soon as a handful holds together when squeezed. Press the dough into a disk, wrap it and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour. It keeps 3 days here and 3 months in the freezer.
Fill and Fold
- Heat the oven to 400F with a rack in the lower third. Pit the cherries and toss them with the granulated sugar, the cornstarch, the lemon juice, the kosher salt and the almond extract. Let the dough sit on the counter for 10 minutes before rolling, or it will crack at the folds.
- Roll the dough on a sheet of parchment to a 14-inch round and slide the parchment onto a rimmed sheet pan. Scatter the almond flour over the middle, leaving a clear border of about 2 inches, and pile the fruit on top of it. Fold the border up over the fruit in loose overlapping creases, pressing each one where it meets the next.
Bake and Cool
- Beat the egg with the heavy cream, brush it over the folded crust and sprinkle the turbinado sugar generously over the top. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes.
- It is done when the crust is deep golden and the juices bubble slowly and thickly at the center, not merely at the rim. Thin, fast bubbles at the edge mean the starch has not set yet. Cool it on the pan for 15 minutes, then slide the parchment onto a wire rack and let it cool completely, about 45 minutes, before slicing.
Notes
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cooking School.
Bake on the lower third of the oven. A pale, damp base is a heat problem rather than a recipe problem, and a preheated sheet pan helps further.
Doneness is the center bubbling, not the rim. Cornstarch only thickens once the liquid around it boils, and the middle is the last place to reach that. Look for slow, thick bubbles.
Cool it completely before slicing, about 45 minutes. The filling finishes setting as it cools.
Make ahead: the dough keeps 3 days refrigerated and 3 months frozen. A fully assembled unbaked galette freezes for 1 month; bake it from frozen at 400F for about 65 minutes.
Storage: 2 days loosely covered at room temperature, 4 days refrigerated, 2 months frozen once baked.
Sour cherries need roughly double the sugar. Frozen cherries go in unthawed with 10 minutes more baking.
Nutrition values are an estimate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 361kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 180mg | Potassium: 290mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 560IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 1.3mg