One of the many fruits that takes me right back to my childhood in Iran are cherries. I have always loved cherries and it might possibly be because we had three cherry trees in my grandmother’s backyard. This meant that we never had to purchase cherries when they were in season because the trees provided us with plenty for ourselves and to share with those who came to visit.  One of my favorite things to do was picking cherries and eating them right from the trees.

Today’s post came about because of a couple of reasons. A couple of weeks ago we were getting ready to go on a camping trip and I had an abundance of cherries in my fridge. The night before out departure we had plans to go over our friends Linda and Marcus’ place for a quick dinner. In the middle of the frenzy that was prepping food to feed two dinners to the 20 campers that were coming along on the trip, I decided that I needed to do something with my cherries. The easiest thing that I could think of was making a Cherry Galette to take with us for a post dinner dessert.

I have to tell you that Galette is one of my favorite types of dessert to make because it’s easy to make. I have made Galettes with various types of fruits and it’s always a crowd pleaser.  I used to think that making dough for pies was one of the hardest things to do. But that was before I knew a good recipe for it, but most importantly before I knew a couple of tricks that make the process easier.  I was first introduced to Galettes when I was going through my culinary program.  I panicked at the though of having to make dough. Sure enough I was proven wrong and realized that it is not that hard to make, at all. Furthermore, it was love at first sight and bite. I absolutely loved the rustic look of it and how easy it is to make.

The most important thing to remember when making pie dough is that you have to have super cold butter and ice cold water.  Additionally, your dough has to rest for a few hours in the fridge. While in my culinary program we assembled the dough by hand, I have found that making it in a food processor makes the whole process faster and easier.

Ingredients
Dough
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 stick unsalted cold butter
1/2 cup ice cold water
1 egg
Filling
3lb fresh cherries
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter
zest of 1 lime
1/4 cup chopped pistachios

 

Before you being, place water for the dough in your freezer.

While the water gets ice cold, in a food processor combine flour, salt, and sugar.  Pulse a few times to combine.  Then removed from fridge, cut into small cubes, and add to the dry ingredients.

Pulse a few times until it all looks like a coarse meal.

Remove water from the fridge and slowly add to the rest of the ingredients while pulsing. Add enough water until the dough comes together. Some days you might end up using only 1/3 of a cup of water while other days you may need 1/2 cup. It all depends on the weather.  Don’t panic, just make sure your dough is not too wet.

Once the dough is ready it’ll all come together into a ball. Make sure that the dough is not too wet.

Remove dough from food processor and work into a disk. Place dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours.

In the mean time, remove cherry pits.

Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and mix. Place in a colander for a couple of hours.  You may opt to cook the cherries if you wish. I personally wanted them to stay nice and round.

Add lime zest to cherries and mix well.

Remove dough from the fridge and roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness.

Place dough on a cookie sheet, stone, or a 9 inch round stone. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar. Cut 1 tablespoon of butter into small pieces and place on top of the cherries.

Fold over the edges and brush all of the dough with egg wash. Sprinkle a little sugar on the dough itself.  Bake at 400° for about 30 minutes or until dough has turned into a nice golden color. While the Galette is in the oven toast pistachios. Once the Galette is done sprinkle pistachios on top of cherries. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Just in case you are wondering about the lack of pistachios in the pictures, here is the truth…by the time the Galette came out of the oven, I was in a hurry to take pictures because it was already around 6pm and I didn’t have enough natural light to work with.  I was so focused on the fact that my pictures were going to come out too dark that I completely forgot to add the pistachios until it was time to cut into the Cherry Galette at dessert time. Oh well!