A simple, rustic sour cherry galette recipe that highlights the tart flavors of sour cherries beautifully. Jump to recipe.
Sour cherry season came a little early this year. May was incredibly warm – excellent cherry growing weather, I guess. I’ve yet to find a market source for sour cherries in Virginia, but it doesn’t matter because I have friends with five sour cherry trees in their backyard. We had big plans to head over to their yard with the family to pick cherries and hang out, but our oldest came down with what turned out to be strep on Sunday, and my twee photo shoot dreams disappeared. So, just like last year, Brian headed out solo for the cherries, this time with a big bag of greens from our garden to trade.
(You’re all so nice when I share details about the girls, so I want you to know that our oldest is doing much better already – well enough, even, to enjoy galette a la mode last night.)
Sour cherry season is so brief and they’re so delicate and special, I wanted to do them justice. A galette, which would showcase their saturated color and vivid taste, seemed like a good place to start. Mine has flaky dough – the kind that shatters with the fork’s first strike – made with a mix of all-purpose and sweet sorghum flours. Inside, sour cherries come to the fore, with just enough sugar to temper the tartness and a little zest and cinnamon to round things out. I put it all together, folded it up, and finished with an egg white wash and a generous sprinkling of sugar. I slid the sour cherry galette into the oven, and baked it until the crust was a deep golden hue and the juices were bubbling. Once cool, the galette made for a lovely end to our family dinner.
A scoop of vanilla ice cream is a wonderful complement, though the purist in me loves the sour cherry galette all by itself.
A simple, rustic sour cherry galette recipe that highlights the tart flavors of sour cherries beautifully.
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sorghum flour (sub all-purpose flour, if that's easier)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 8 tablespoons cold butter
- 4 - 5 tablespoons ice water
- 3 heaping cups pitted sour cherries (about 4 1/2 cups un-pitted)
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar , divided
- 2 tablespoons finely ground instant tapioca (I use my coffee grinder for this)
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- egg white , lightly beaten
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In a medium-sized bowl, use a fork to whisk the flours, sugar, and sea salt together. Grate in the butter, using fingertips to massage butter into the flour mixture. When mixture is well combined and crumbly, drizzle in just enough water for it to hold together. (If you're new to homemade dough, add enough water to handle the dough easily – it will be fine.)
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Mound dough into a disc, wrap tightly with plastic, and chill for an hour or longer.
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
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To prepare the filling, fold the pitted cherries, sugar, tapioca, lemon zest, sea salt, and cinnamon together. Set aside while you roll out the dough.
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Take the cut parchment from the prepared baking sheet and dust very lightly with flour. On the parchment, roll out the dough into a rough 14-inch circle. Place parchment with dough round on the baking sheet.
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Working very quickly, mound the filling in the center of the dough, doing your best to leave excess juices behind. (Paper towels can be used to sop up any running juices, if needed.) Fold the dough up in 4-inch sections and lightly press together. Brush with egg white, sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, and slide into the oven. Immediately turn heat down to 425 degrees F and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate galette, turn heat to 375 degrees F and bake until galette is a deep golden brown and juices are bubbling, 20 - 25 minutes longer.
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Cool for two hours before serving. Scoops of vanilla ice cream are optional.
it’s crazy how quickly cherries came into season this year! that dang global warming, but oh well, it gives us beautiful cherry pies and galettes like this one (so at least there’s that???).
Clarify the “sugar” amount to be added to the filling. The way it is written: “sugar divided” yet there are no instructions on how much to divide and how much to ADD – thanks
This is so gorgeous. I love galettes. Wish I could get my hands on sour cherries! 🙂
Such a mistake to “sop up the juices”- that’s where all of the flavor and glaze comes from…so the galette comes out looking just OK, but too dry, nothing bubbling! Never saw this type of instruction in any pie or galette recipe. If you are worried about excess juices, crush some crackers w a bit of almond flavoring and spread on center of crust before pouring filling on…but don’t discard anything!
Hi Mary Ellen, I find that with all fruit pies and galettes, there’s a delicate balance between a nice, juicy filling and a soggy crust, and tend to leave a few tablespoons of juice behind is the filling is notably juicy. Of course this varies depending on the ripeness of the fruit. I usually use ground tapioca to set my filling, and have never tried the cracker trick.
My advice to “sop up any juices” with paper towels is in reference to the juices that may run out on the baking sheet as the galette is folded up. When juices are outside the crust, they can only serve to make the crust soggy and/or start smoking in the oven.
Thanks for reading the recipe and sharing your experiences with fruit galettes!
Last year I got sour cherries from Relay Foods. I emailed them recently to ask them when they’ll have them on their site again and they said possibly in the next two weeks!
This galette is gorgeous, Elizabeth, and your photos are perfection! <3
What I wouldn’t give to have a friend with sour cherry trees! I do have a California friend that has an Asian pear tree and it kindly ripens when we like to visit 🙂 Galettes are my favorite way to celebrate summer’s best fruit and yours is gorgeous!
So funny! I thought of you while I was picking sour cherries down the street from you – a chance find that involved me begging neighbors to let me pick in exchange for some jam. So glad you’ve got a good, friendly source. Sour cherries are so special. I think I’ll plant another one this fall…and try not to kill it.
These photos are SO gorgeous. I love love love what you’re doing with cherries and galettes, using a super tart fruit in such a sweet pastry is genius. And congrats on the Saveur award– you deserve it!!
How beautiful! We planted a sour cherry tree this year in our yard and even though it might be a few years before we can harvest any, I have big plans on what to do with them. I’ll add this gorgeous galette to the list!
What a beautiful galette! Sour cherries are my favorite! Do you think this could be made with GF flour? http://www.sugarpeel.com
This is so beautiful! I love perfect early summer dessert. I have never had sour cherries, but I am super curious about them now.
This looks amazing- it makes me nostalgic for the Dominican Republic- I was there last week and tried sour cherries (which are in abundance there) for the first time. Wish I could have stayed longer and made this recipe too!
I love sour cherries. I wish I could find some fresh in Atlanta! This galette looks perfect.
Do you think this recipe could be done with can pie cherries
Hi Lorraine, Good question! I have not tried this with pie cherries, but my guess is they’ll probably be fine. I might add some fresh lemon zest to pep up the flavor.
Hi Elizabeth! This is the first time I’ve stumbled on your blog (thanks to a sour cherry roundup on Huffpost!) and I’m floored by the beauty of your photos!! Very very pretty and the light is just gorgeous.
Hi from Buenos Aires!
felicia
I picked up some fresh sour cherries at our local farmer’s market last weekend and made the galette on Sunday – great recipe! I subbed all=purpose flour for the sorghum, used slightly less than 1/2 cup of sugar, skipped the lemon zest because I didn’t have fresh lemons at hand and added 1/2 tsp of vanilla and a little extra cinnamon. It was super delicious and the crust came out really well. I think the use of ground tapioca is brilliant – helps the filling set nicely.