Cherry & Almond Galette

What the heck is a galette? I didn't know either.. but when I saw the picture of this desert in a magazine, I just had to try it out! Well, so it turns out a galette is basically just a big cookie and that's exactly what this turned out like. The crust was extremely delicious, conjuring one of my favorite cookies, shortbread, with a layer of fresh whole cherries and finely chopped almonds. The recipe called for nutmeg in the "filling" (which really is a topping in this case), but in bites without the cookie, I felt the nutmeg didn't really mesh with the cherries that well. Working with the dough after it was made was a little difficult, but I eventually got it into a form that I could put the filling on top and bake it. Everyone loved it, and I would definitely make it again. Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try.. you can thank Martha Stewart for this one, it's featured in her book "New Pies and Tarts".

Ingredients:

(For the crust)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

2 to 4 tbs cold heavy cream or ice water

(For the filling)

1/4 cup plus 2 tbs. sugar

1/4 cup whole raw almonds, toasted and cooled

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (I would leave this out personally)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 pounds sweet cherries, pitted

2 tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk, for egg wash

1 tbs. heavy cream, for egg wash

A neat trick for separating a yolk from the egg white is to break the egg in two halves and over a bowl, gently pass the yolk back and forth between each half of the shell. The yolk should fall down into the bowl and leave you with the yolk in one half of the shell at the end. Takes a little practice, but it's very handy! I have both halves in 1 hand just to take the example picture.. but if you can do it with 1 hand, kudos to you.

Instructions

For the crust:

 Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter, and pulse just until mixture resembles coarse meal. 

Add yolks and drizzle 2 tbs. cream evenly over the mixture; pulse just until dough begins to come together, no more than 30 seconds. If the dough is too dry, add remaining cream, 1 tbs. at a time (I ended up adding 1 extra myself). Pat dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour or up to 2 days.

  After the dough settles for an hour: On lightly floured parchment paper, roll out dough to a 16-inch-long oval, about 1/4 inch think. Transfer the dough and parchment to a rimmed backing sheet. Refrigerate until firm about 30 minutes.

Making the filling: 

 In a food processor, pulse 1/4 cup sugar, almonds, nutmeg (if you like), and salt until almonds are finely ground. Gently toss mixture with your pitted cherries.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spoon cherry mixture over dough, leaving a 2 inch border. Dot with butter. Fold in edges, pressing gently. Refrigerate until firm, another 30 minutes.

Egg wash:

Whisk egg yolk with cream and brush over edges of the crust. Sprinkle entire surface of the galette with remaining 2 tbs. of sugar. 

I didn't have much room left after I put on all my cherries.. so I couldn't fold the edge over much. If you can fold more and cover some of the cherries, that will look really nice.

Bake until golden, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, let cool completely.

Enjoy!