Peach-Cherry Galette

Make the most of the cherries and peaches in season now by mixing them together in a buttery galette.

The real plus of this recipe is the low amount of sugar that it uses, which allows the natural flavors of the fruit to shine.

It comes from someone named Elise, who posted it on SimplyRecipes.com. Her version simply had peaches in it, but she encourages experimentation and the cherries were too good to pass up.

“Have you seen the peaches in the market? They’re beautiful this season,” she writes. “One of my favorite summer desserts is a rustic tart, or galette, because it’s just so easy to put together. As I have an almost unreasonable love of homemade crusts, I make several batches of dough in advance, and just wrap them in plastic wrap and keep them in the freezer until needed. This is a simple peach galette, with fresh yellow peaches tossed with a little sugar, flour, and vanilla.

“You can play around with it a bit. Before laying down the peaches I dotted the bottom of the crust with a little almond paste. You could add blueberries, or toss in a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg. Sprinkle with lemon juice if the peaches are too sweet. Speaking of sweetness, it’s best to use yellow peaches for this baked dessert. The flavor of sweet white peaches is delicate and doesn’t hold up well to cooking.”

Roll out the dough in a circle.

A few other substitutes include using almond extract instead of vanilla or using a mixture of your favorite fruit, including strawberries, plums, pears and apples, though I might sauté the apples slightly first, because they will take longer to cook than the peaches.  You could also use 1/4 cup almond flour in place of 1/4 cup flour to give it a nuttier flavor.

I didn’t have any almond paste on hand when I was making the recipe, so I made my own using equal parts nuts (in my case I mixed almonds and hazelnuts) and powdered sugar with a splash of amaretto to moisten it. You could also use kirsh, Frangelico, peach schnapps or  any liqueur with a flavor that would complement either the nuts or the fruit.

One last note: This is a fairly small dish, perfect for a family dessert. If you plan on serving this at a party, you may want to double the recipe and make two.

Some of you may remember my fondness for galettes, or croustades, as the Italians call them. Back in 2009, I wrote about them and trying to find the right crust. That post has more information on making crust, if you are a novice. To read it, click here.

Peach-Cherry Galette

Crust:

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces (1/2 cup, 1 stick or 8 tablespoons) butter, cut into small (1/2-inch) cubes, chilled in freezer at least 15 minutes, preferably an hour
4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Filling:
2 large or 3 medium, not-overly-ripe yellow peaches (about 3/4 pound total), pitted, sliced into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch slices
6-10 bing cherries, halved and pitted
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon almond paste (optional)
1 teaspoon butter

1 egg mixed with a splash of water
A sprinkling of coarse sugar (optional)

Arrange the fruit in the center of the dough.

To make the crust dough: In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt, until well mixed. Add the cubed butter, and pulse 8 times. The butter should still be the size of peas in the mixture. Slowly add the ice water, a tablespoon or two at a time, pulsing after each addition, until the dough just begins to clump. Turn out onto a clean surface. Use your clean hands to form into a disc. Do not over-knead. Work the dough only enough to bring it barely together into a disk. Sprinkle with a little flour on all sides, wrap with plastic, and place into the refrigerator to chill for an hour.

Preheat the oven with the rack in the middle position to 425 degrees. Place the peach slices and cherries in a bowl and sprinkle with the flour and sugar. Toss gently to coat. Sprinkle vanilla extract over the peaches. (Editor’s note: You may want to make sure the flour is dissolved, but without bruising the fruit. I didn’t and specks of flour were visible after baking. I dusted with a slight coat of powdered sugar to make it all blend together.)

In a small bowl, whisk the egg and water until smooth and set aside.

On a lightly floured, clean, smooth surface, roll out the dough to about a 12-inch diameter. Gently lift up the rolled out dough and place it on a rimmed baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Fold up the sides before brushing with an egg wash and sprinkling with sugar.

If you are using almond paste (not necessary, but a nice addition if you have it), dot the middle 6-inch circle of the dough with the almond paste. (If you can spread it, great. Otherwise, just dot with little bits.) Arrange the peach slices in an overlapping pattern in a single layer in the center of the dough, forming about a 7 or 8-inch circle. Arrange the cherry halves on top. Dot with a little butter.

Fold the outer edges of the dough round over the filling, by about 2-inches all the way around, in an accordion fashion. Use a pastry brush to coat the exposed dough with an egg wash (you can cook up the leftover egg as a little scrambled egg, by the way), and sprinkle with coarse sugar if using.

Place in the oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet, over a rack, about 15 minutes.

Great served with a little vanilla ice cream.

Makes 8 servings.

Adapted from SimplyRecipes.com

Even with its juices bubbling out, this plum galette is beautiful.

The red plums this summer have been spectacular, so juicy and full-flavored, that I couldn’t let them go to waste. So, I set out to make a galette, which is a rustic, open-faced pie or pastry. The Italians call it croustade. I call it irresistible.

Yet I had never made one before and didn’t know where to begin. So, I searched through a host of recipes on the Internet and in various French/Italian cookbooks, hoping for a clue. I became more confused than when I had started.

It seems that you can use any kind of crust that you want, and the more you research the topic, the more suggestions you’ll find. Some call for regular pie crust, others for a shortbread pastry. A few want a cookie crust, others want puff pastry. None is wrong. It’s all a matter of what you want to bite into.

The filling is equally idiosyncratic, except for the general rule that your fruit should be at the center in concentric circles with the fruit peel facing up. Layering the plum slices proved to be fun, and the beauty of what you are preparing gives you a good feeling about what’s to come.

But what you do with that fruit is up to you.

The first version that I made was sort of a test-run. I used a pre-made  pie crust, which I rolled out to about 14 inches. Then I spread a mixture of flour, almond meal and 1 tablespoons sugar in a circle within 2 inches of the edges. I then layered the plum slices on top, starting from the center and working out. I sprinkled 1 tablespoon sugar over the top and dotted any slightly open sections between the fruit with slivers of butter. Then I sprinkled about 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract over the top. (That was 2 tablespoons sugar, as opposed to the 1/4 cup or more you’ll find in most recipes. If your fruit is ripe, you could use even less, as I did on the second go-round.)

With the filling ready, I folded up of the sides of the pie crust and pleated it wherever necessary, so that the crust lay over all but the center of the fruit. I laid a loose sheet of aluminum foil on top and baked it at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes. I checked on how it was doing at that point, and discovered that the pie crust had leaked out a bit of sauce, which was bubbling around the edges. No problem. I took a pastry brush and used the sauce to brush the top of the fruit. I also brushed some powdered sugar on the outside of the crust and put it back in the oven uncovered for 10 minutes or so, until the crust was golden brown and the juices in the pie were really bubbling.

Arrange the plums in the center of the crust.

It tasted great. Well, except for the pie crust. As good as it was, it seemed to recede into the background in comparison with the plums.

So, I cast about for suggestions on what crust to try next. Local food writer Chris Dunn offered one idea that I kept coming back to whenever I thought of what to do. He said to make of recipe of Mexican wedding cookie dough and roll it out. With a few modifications to my mom’s recipe (she calls them Russian tea cakes), I was ready to go. The result was much better and it’s the recipe I include below.

For one, I didn’t roll the dough out too thin, so no juices leaked. Plus, the nuts and the salt in the dough made the texture much more interesting. (Salt is a necessity in all pastry, and I like to use a coarse salt to give the dough even more brightness when you bite into a crystal.) I didn’t flour the board enough, however, so I had to cut the dough in half , slide a spatula underneath and mold it together with my finger once it was on the baking sheet.

My colleague, Bonnie Walker, has already requested a version of this for her upcoming birthday. But she wants a different crust, more of a buttery shortbread. That’s fine with me. I know I’ll enjoy experimenting with this recipe until the plums are gone and beyond. You can use any fruit with a good peel, from apples and pears to peaches and nectarines.

Plum Galette

Crust:
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup ground almonds
1 egg

Filling:
6 to 8 ripe plums
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons ground almonds
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste, divided use
2 tablespoons butter, cut in tiny slivers
1/4 teaspoon almond extract, or to taste

For crust: In a mixer, cream butter and add powdered sugar and salt, then vanilla until all is incorporated. Slowly add flour, ground almonds and egg. Form into dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Fold up the sides and dot with butter before baking.

For filling: Cut the plums into slices, removing the pit.

Line a baking sheet with Silpat, a non-stick baking sheet, or parchment paper. On a floured board, roll out the dough until it is about 14 inches round. The dough will be thick. Transfer to baking sheet. (If dough sticks to board, cut in half, use a spatula to lift and move. If pieces break off, use your finger to press it back to together.) Edges will likely hang over the side.

Once dough is ready, mix together flour, ground almonds and 1 tablespoon sugar. Spread around center within 2  inches of crust’s edge. Starting from center, build rings of plums in concentric circles going out, making sure the skin side is up. Taste a softer piece of plum. The riper it is, the less sugar you have to add. Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon sugar or to taste on top. Drop slivers of butter in any slightly open spot between fruit. Drizzle almond extract across the top.

Fold up the sides of the dough, pleating where necessary. Look for cracks in the dough and cover over them with your finger. Lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top and back 35-40 minutes or until crust is beginning to look done. Uncover and cook another 5-10 minutes until desired color is reached and fruit juices are bubbling.

Remove from oven and let cool 30 minutes at least before serving. Drizzle a spoonful of sour cream mixed with your favorite cordial, such as brandy or creme de cassis, if desired.

Makes 8-10 servings.

From John Griffin