If you haven’t chosen a dessert or a pie to celebrate summer or 4th of July, this is a great opportunity to make a galette, and since it is cherry season, let’s just make a cherry galette!

Galettes are a free form pie that you can make ahead without the detail involved in making a pie. They hold pretty well outside while you’re grilling your burgers and veggies! And served with ice cream in the summer are a total hit!

I don’t know about you, but cherries are extremely addictive to me. I can pass but if I start eating them I really need to be strong in order to stop. So I have been eating cherries by the bag and I decided to use them in a recipe, so a galette was a no brainer…

This galette is very easy to make and it has a lot of flavor.

I toasted 1/4 cup of marcona almonds, ground them and then layered them between the dough and the cherry filling. I tried to make this galette with a layer of mascarpone and almonds before and I found that it comes out better when you just use almonds or breadcrumbs between the dough and the fruits, it keeps the crust flaky.

The cherries are lightly cooked in semi-sweet Marsala wine, brown sugar and vanilla, I mean guys you NEED to give this a try, you really do!

I have a little of filling leftover that I am planning on enjoying with yogurt…It has inspired me to make a recipe for cherry sauce and use it for ice cream, let’s see how it turns out, I will keep you posted.

I used Marsala wine since I am making a sauce for chicken and I thought why not to use it to lightly cook the cherries before I bake them, otherwise, the fruit becomes a little dry after you bake the galette.

You can replace the Marsala with Merlot or Bourbon. I think that also rose would go great with this recipe but I haven’t tried it yet.

I like to serve it at room temperature with vanilla ice cream. However, my favorite way to enjoy it is right after it has been baked and it is still warm!

We just finished watching House of Cards and of course, I can’t believe that now we need to wait another year! Luckily, Game of Thrones season 7 will begin in a couple of weeks!

Here’s what you need:

Cherry Galette

Yield: 6 - 8 servings

Ingredients

Dough:

1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour

1 tbs of sugar or Truvia baking blend

1/4 tsp of salt

8 tbs or 1 stick of cold butter, diced

3 to 4  tbs of iced cold water

1 egg

1/4 cup of almonds, toasted and then ground

about 2 more tbs of sliced almonds to garnish the dough

Filling:

3 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen cherries, pitted

3/4 cup of Marsala wine

1/4 cup of water

2 tbs of flour

2 tbs of water

1/2 cup of brown sugar or Brown Truvia the Baking Blend

2 tbs of vanilla extract

 

 

Instructions

Place flour and diced butter in a large bowl and blend with a fork or pastry blender until pieces are pea-size. Stir in sugar and salt.

You can place flour, butter, sugar and salt in the food processor and process until pieces are pea-size.

Add 3 to 4 tbsp of iced water (one at a time) and stir and push moistened dough until all dough feels moistened. Form dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or 24 hours.

Place almonds in a small pan and toast at medium heat until fragrant, they will be lightly brown. Grind in the food processor and place in a small bowl. Set aside.

Wash and pit the cherries. Place the wine, water, sugar or Truvia and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Stir and add the cherries, start cooking them at medium-low for about 7 minutes. Whisk 2 tbs of flour and 2 tbs of water until completely mixed and add to the cherries filling, stir until the mixture starts to thicken.

Preheat oven to 375°  Fahrenheit.

Cover sheet pan with parchment paper. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll dough to a 12-14 inch circle. It does not have to be perfectly round. Transfer the dough into the sheet pan and finish rolling the dough (from center to the sides – turning it to stretch from all sides).

Spread the toasted almonds all over the dough, leaving about 2 inches circle from the border. Place the cherry mixture. Fold the dough borders over the filling, overlapping the borders and leaving some of the center of the filling exposed.

Whisk the egg with a tbsp of water and brush over the border of the dough. Place some sliced almonds and sprinkle some sugar over the dough and the center.

Bake for about 45 – 55 minutes or until de center is bubbly, the cherries are tender and the borders of the crust are browned.

Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let  cool for 20 minutes before serving.

 

Notes

You could replace the Marsala wine with 1/2 cup of Bourbon or 1/2 cup of Merlot.