As promised, here's a recipe that is so simple and so good you'll want to make it weekly, if not daily. Since fresh cherries are almost a thing of the past, get crackin' on this one soon. I suppose you could use frozen cherries...but fresh cherries just look and taste so much better. The mister exclaimed, "This is the best thing you've ever made," but then, as is his way, he went on to say, "you should have left that crunchy stuff off the top and why didn't you buy ice cream?" Crunchy stuff on the top? Turbinado sugar. Apparently he's a pie crust purist. But he was right about one thing...I should have bought ice cream!
If you have a cherry pitter, dust it off and pit your cherries, about 3 cups worth. If you don't have a pitter, you can use a paring knife. The cherries are marinated in a bowl with sugar, cornstarch, salt and almond extract while you make the pie crust, click here for the recipe. Once the dough is made and rolled out, you just pile up the cherries in the center - this is a free-form-rustic kind of pie.
Frau Bink, who passed along this recipe, also passed along a jar of her homemade cherry preserves...and they were incredibly good...too good for just toast...so I smeared a heaping couple of tablespoons onto the center of the dough...then topped it with the cherry mixture. The dough is loosely folded over towards the center, leaving an opening, then basted with egg wash and sprinkled with crunchy stuff...turbinado sugar.
The only way this elegant Galette could taste better is if it were eaten while sitting along the shores of the Seine while watching the barges slip silently towards the Eiffel Tower...did I mention we're going to France? I'll try not to be insufferable about my trip...but we are going to Paris and the French Riviera...and I'm going to take a few cooking classes...Oui! Moi shall be making French Pastries in France!!! Okay, I'll stop now...I'm making myself hyperventilate. Don't delay, make this today!
Cherry Galette - Adapted from Barbara Schwartz, via Frau Bink
1 disk, prepared pie crust, click here for the recipe
3 to 4 cups of cherries, stemmed, pitted and halved
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons cornstarch
pinch of salt
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup cherry preserves
1 egg white
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch, salt and almond extract in a large bowl. Stir to coat. Roll out pie crust to a thickness of 1/8-inch. Place on parchment paper lined, rimmed baking sheet.
Fill the center of the dough with 1/4 cup cherry preserves, leaving about a 2-inch border. Top the preserves with the cherry mixture. Fold the edges of the dough over the filling an an over-lapping fashion, leaving an opening in the center. Brush the edges of the dough with egg white and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake on lower rack in the oven at 425 degree for 10 minutes. Then turn down the oven to 375 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes or until the crust is dark golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream...or not. Serves 6 to 8.
