Cherry Galette Adventure!
Jul 9th, 2012 by Visha Gandhi, Communications Intern
What do you do when a member of Not Far From the Tree asks if you want to go on a local fruit adventure? Well, as a pastry cook and die-hard food nerd, the only answer for me could be yes! That was how I found myself, on a warm Tuesday evening, cracking open a bottle of VQA red and rolling and cutting three hundred and twenty one-bite cherry galettes.
With Not Far From the Tree’s Fifth Birthday Party quickly approaching, Laura asked if I would take the lead on making the one-cherry galettes, and with a few plucky volunteers (Jenna and Cathy), the task was accomplished exactly according to plan. We used generously donated kitchen space at Café Plenty to prep and bake the galettes the day of the party, where the intoxicating scent of butter, baking pate brisée, and cherries still warm from the sun wafted in the air.
The below recipe is a rough roadmap for your own galette adventure!
Pate Brisée
3 parts pastry flour
2 parts cold grated butter
1 part ice-cold water
1 pinch salt
Pastry is made by weighing the ingredients, and for ½ lb of butter, you should be able to make 20 mini fruit galettes. Using a stand mixer or a pastry cutter, mix together the flour, salt, and butter, until the mix has pea-sized lumps in it. Slowly add the water, and mix until it forms a ball. Be careful not to over-work! The dough should have a silky texture.
Let dough rest in the fridge for ½ an hour before rolling. After dusting your work surface with flour, roll out dough, making sure it is a thickness of ½ a centimeter and evenly rolled. Using a food form or round cookie cutter, cut the rounds and place on baking trays.
Cherry Galettes
30 cherries, pitted and halved
1 free-range egg
2 Tbsp heavy cream
white sugar, for sprinkling
pate brisée dough
Take a pre-cut round and brush with egg and cream mixture. Add two cherry halves and fold the corners in, pinching the edges. Brush the edges with more egg wash and sprinkle sugar on to taste. Bake at 375 F until golden (15 mins or so, depending on the oven). Enjoy!
I’m gonna try it… cheers!