Two Summer Fruit Galettes: Cherry Ricotta and Plum with Almond Paste

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Line a large baking sheet, or round pizza pan, should you have one, with baking parchment or a silicon mat.

Lightly scatter flour over your clean worktop. Lightly flour your rolling pin. Now roll out your pastry from the center. If it fights you, give it a moment to find itself and try again. If the pastry sticks to your work surface, get under it with a large spatula, fish slice, or whatever you have that’s thin and ideally metal to work it free. Be patient.

Aim for a circular, or at least oblong shape, about 10-12 inches/23-25cm. Add a bit more flour if you must, but try not to.

If the pastry rips, press it together with the pin or your fingers. Try to handle it as little as possible.

Using a small, sharp knife, trim your pastry and save the trimmings to patch any tears or holes .

Using your fish slice, or spatula, move what is now your crust to your baking sheet.

Leaving a good 2 inch/5 cm border, spread the drained ricotta on dough. You can lightly sugar, or not, then layer your pitted cherries, being as artistic or haphazard as you wish.

Begin folding the border over by pinching it, a little like making a rumpled bed. I do it in roughly  2inch/5 cm pieces, folding as I go. My folds are not very neat, but remember, galettes are rustic. Now use the reserved trimmings to patch, if necessary. If you have any leftover pieces of pastry, pop them on the baking sheet and bake them alongside the galette. But remember to check on them, or they’ll burn.

Pour over your liqueur of choice, or not.

Sugar the galette.

Paint your egg wash over. I use a whole egg here, but use just the yolk, if you prefer.

Slide your galette into the oven and bake 35-40 minutes. It’s done when it puffs, is deeply brown, and the filling is bubbly. The galette will look done–use your eyes. You’ll know.

Cool completely on a baking rack. Otherwise, soggy pastry.

The galette will keep for three days at room temperature, well-wrapped. If your kitchen is extremely warm, refrigerate it. After three days, freeze the galette. It will keep, frozen, up to three months.

Notes:

White vinegar is an excellent if stinky cleaning solution. It’s also food safe.

Some people feel the cherries going into galettes should be left unpitted. These people do not live with somebody who might choke to death on cherry pits. Like my husband.

Even if John were the picture of health, the idea of baking a galette filled with unpitted cherries leaves me cold. Here you are, chewing, spitting out pits, Talk about ruining what should be a pleasure! But if you want unpitted cherries, don’t let me stop you.

After years of making huge messes pitting cherries with the side of a knife, I bought a cherry pitter. I recommend them. Olive pitters also work.

About the egg wash: I use the entire egg, which leaves leftover, I cover and refrigerate it, using up the remainder in another meal.

I’ve had the occasional pastry leak while baking; this is not the end of the world, so long has you use a sturdy baking sheet.

The variations to this galette are nearly endless. (Maybe not endless. Crabapples might be a hard sell.) You may add nuts, so long as you’re certain you won’t kill anyone. Vary the liquor or omit it: consider Amaretto, cherry bounce, cherry heering, Raspberry liquors, Cointreau, or hazelnut extract. Swap the ricotta base for almond paste or smear some jam under there. Or be elegantly understated and just shake a little sugar over the bare pastry and call it good.

Don’t use a huge piece of baking paper that leaves the ends hanging off the baking tray. The parchment burns, setting off the smoke detector and leaving an ashy mess everywhere. You don’t want to clean this up. Trust me.

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Line a large baking sheet, or round pizza pan, should you have one, with baking parchment or a silicon mat.

Lightly scatter flour over your clean worktop. Lightly flour your rolling pin. Now roll out your pastry from the center. If it fights you, give it a moment to find itself and try again. If the pastry sticks to your work surface, get under it with a large spatula, fish slice, or whatever you have that’s thin and ideally metal to work it free. Be patient.

Aim for a circular, or at least oblong shape, about 10-12 inches/23-25cm. Add a bit more flour if you must, but try not to.

If the pastry rips, press it together with the pin or your fingers. Try to handle it as little as possible.

Using a small, sharp knife, trim your pastry and save the trimmings to patch any tears or holes .

Using your fish slice, or spatula, move what is now your crust to your baking sheet.

Leaving a good 2 inch/5 cm border, dollop the almond paste on dough. I use my clean fingers to gently press it down, but the back of a spoon also works. You don’t need to have a perfectly smooth, even layer-my almond paste is thick, and working it would tear the pastry, so I just press it down to flattish lumps.

Lay the plums down over the almond paste. You can be neat or haphazard. I put mine down in a circular pattern.

Fold the pastry border over by pinching it. I do this in roughly two inch/5 cm pieces, folding as I go. My folds are not neat, but remember, galettes are rustic. Now patch any holes using reserved trimmings, if necessary.

If you have any leftover pastry bits, you can sugar and bake them alongside the galette. Remember to check on them, as they’ll be done faster than the galette.

Pour over your liqueur of choice, or not.

Scatter sugar over the pastry.

Paint your egg wash over. I use a whole egg here, but use just the yolk, if you prefer.

Slide your galette into the oven and bake 35-40 minutes. It’s done when it puffs, is deeply brown, and the filling is bubbly. It will look done–use your eyes. You’ll know.

Cool completely on a baking rack. Otherwise, soggy pastry.

The galette will keep for three days at room temperature, well-wrapped, but if your kitchen is extremely warm, refrigerate the galette. After three days, freeze the galette. It will keep, frozen, up to three months.

Notes:

You want to buy almond paste, not marzipan. I like Odense brand.

The amount of sugar depends on your fruit and personal preference.

Plums don’t always lend themselves to neat slices; it depends on the fruit variety and their ripeness. Do your best and don’t worry.

As with the cherry galette and vanilla, the Amaretto and/or almond extract is entirely optional. If you do decide to add it, go easy, as it rapidly goes from charming to overwhelming.