You know what’s better than eating cherries straight out of the bag for lunch?
WINE.
These individual galettes are not your average dessert. The rustic pie/tart/pastry-thingies are filled with red wine-soaked cherries, glazed with a red wine reduction, and then topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It tastes like someone (me) spiked a cherry pie with wine (because I did).
And they couldn’t be easier. You take a dough circle (full disclosure: more like rounded squares and octagons), fill it with drunken fruit, and then fold the edges in.
Imperfection is the key here – because I’m almost positive that “galette” is French for “just throw that crap together because no one GAF what it looks like and pour me more wine.” (Gosh, the French are insanely concise. And bossy.)
And sure, you need 2 hours for the recipe. But 90 minutes of that is actually you just drinking wine while watching Top Gear reruns.
I used my all-time-favorite forever-and-ever-amen pie crust recipe for the perfectly flaky base. You could just grab one from the freezer section… but you might as well just make your own. Because what else are you going to do while the cherries are soaking? (Besides drink wine.)
Drunken Cherry Galettes
A buttery, flaky galette filled with red wine-soaked cherries.
Ingredients
- For the pie crust:
- 11 Tbsp cold butter, cut into small chunks
- 2 cups flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4-6 Tbsp ice cold water
- For the filling:
- ~1 1/4 lb cherries, (pitted to yield 1 lb)
- 1 cup red wine (I used a merlot - anything you like to drink will work)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Juice and Zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 egg whisked with 1 tbsp water
- Coarse sugar for sprinkling
- Vanilla ice cream, for serving
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
- Cut in the butter (by hand or machine) until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is mostly the size of peas.
- Add 4 Tbsp water and mix, adding the last of the water 1 tablespoon at a time only if needed to make the mixture hold together when pinched between your fingers.
- Turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat it together into a disc.
- Wrap tightly and refrigerate for an hour.
- Pit the cherries and place in a shallow dish (I used a pie plate).
- Pour over the wine, lemon juice and zest, and sugar, stirring to mix well.
- Let sit one hour at room temp (longer is fine).
- Set a strainer over a sauce pan and pour the cherries into the strainer, scraping any undissolved sugar from the bowl, and drain well.
- Remove 1/4 cup of wine and set aside.
- Simmer the wine mixture in the pot until thickened and reduced to about 1/4 cup.
- Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Sprinkle cornstarch over the cherries and add the reserved 1/4 cup wine, stirring until well mixed.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, roll out on a floured surface into a circle, and mound 1/4 of the cherries in the center of each circle of dough.
- Fold the edges towards the center and drizzle 1 Tbsp of the liquid left in the bowl over each dessert.
- Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown.
- Brush wine reduction over the fruit in each tart, top with a scoop of ice cream, and drizzle with more wine reduction.
Notes
Yields: 4 galettes, 8 servings
Estimated time: 2 hours
Wine-soaked cherries? Red wine reduction?? I’m sold!! These look so beautiful in their rusticity, and I laughed at your definition of galette – so true!
Yummy! Cherry filling.. 🙂 I loooove cherries 🙂
Oooh! I’m a bit of a drunken cherry addict in the summer time. I normally just spoon them over ice cream, but I quite like the sound of this galette!
Boozy cherries sound good to me! And boozy cherries encased in a flaky crust sound even better.
Making this tomorrow, soaking cherries tonight!!! thank you 🙂