This fresh Rainier cherry galette is as easy to make as it is stunning! I use my perfect flaky pie crust and fill it with sweet Rainier cherries! Top with vanilla ice cream for the perfect summery dessert!
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What is a Galette?
A galette is a French pastry that’s essentially a free-form pie. Galettes can be sweet or savory but I'm partial to sweet fruit galettes! [Also called a crostata in Italian!]
The best thing about galettes vs traditional pies is that they're super easy to make and meant to look rustic and imperfect! To make a galette, you just make circles of pie dough, spoon your filling into the center, and fold the edges over to hold it together. That's it!
If you like this rainier cherry galette, you might also enjoy this plum galette or fresh peach galette!
Ingredient Notes
You only need a couple ingredients to make this fresh rainier cherry galette!
Pie dough - I use my homemade flaky pie crust for this recipe. You can check out this blog post for all my pie crust tips and tricks!
Rainier Cherries - Rainier cherries are my favorite type of cherry! I just love the flavor and beautiful orange color! However, if you can't find rainier cherries, regular sweet cherries will work just as well. I also highly recommend using a cherry pitter to remove the pits.
Cornstarch - We use cornstarch to help thicken the filling, but you can also substitute flour or clear jel. This is a great guide for making those substitutions!
Lemon Juice - I love the pop of brightness and acidity that fresh lemon adds!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
Flaky Pie Dough
For more tips and tricks on how to make perfect flaky pie crust, check out this post!
Cut butter into small cubes and place in the fridge to firm up while you get the rest of your ingredients together.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add in the cold butter and use your hands to press it into the flour mixture until you get quarter sized crumbs.
Add cold water and combine until dough forms a nice ball but is still slightly sticky.
Take the formed ball of dough and shape into slightly flattened disk.
Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This is important to keep the butter from melting so that the crust will be nice and flaky. The chilled dough is also much easier to work with for rolling out.
You can also make the pie dough up to 2 days in advance and store in the fridge until ready to use!
How to Make a Galette
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Gently toss together the pitted and sliced rainier cherries, lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch until evenly coated.
Lightly flour a clean surface. Roll out dough to about ¼ inch thick and about 12 inches across. If you want a cleaner looking galette, you can use a knife to trim the edges of dough to make a perfect circle but it's not necessary.
Place the dough on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Arrange the cherries on your pie dough, leaving about an inch around the edges.
Gently fold over the edges of the dough overlapping as you go.
Brush the edges lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a little extra sugar, if desired.
Bake at 400°F for 30-40 minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.
Let cool for at least 10 minutes, then slice and serve with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream.
This rainier cherry galette is best eaten the same day, but can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. You can serve it cold or warm it up in the oven at 350°F for about 5 minutes to crisp up the crust.
Tips for Flaky Pastries
Use cold ingredients! For most baked goods you want to use room temperature ingredients, but for flaky pastries (like scones, biscuits, or pie crust) the ingredients need to be very cold! Keep any butter, eggs, milk, etc. in the fridge until right before you need to use them!
Chill before baking! Chilling the dough for at least 15-20 minutes before baking helps ensure the butter in the dough is nice and cold and helps the pastries hold their shape. Cold dough + hot oven = perfect flaky pastry!
Don't overwork the dough! You want to mix the ingredients until just combined so that there are still distinct pieces of butter in the dough. This is what gives you those buttery, flaky, air pockets!
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping certain baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature. Some ovens also take longer than the standard "preheat" time to actually come up to the proper temperature.
Recipe FAQ's
Nope! You can use any type of fresh cherries! The most common type of cherry you'll see in the store are bing cherries which are slightly less sweet than Rainier cherries, so you'll want to add an extra tablespoon of sugar. However, I do NOT recommend frozen cherries in this galette.
Chilling the dough helps hydrate the flour and ensures the cherry galette will hold its shape when baked! Chilling the dough also makes it much easier to work with and roll out!
Adding cornstarch or flour is essential in making sure the juices from the cherries congeal and don't get soupy! You can also brush the bottom of the crust with a little bit of egg white before adding the cherries on top, but I don't find that to be necessary.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Rainier Cherry Galette
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Pie Dough
- 1 cup pastry flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
- 2 tablespoons water, cold
- 1 egg, beaten for egg wash
Filling
- 3 cups Rainier cherries, about 1 pound
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- pinch kosher salt
Instructions
Pie Dough
- For more tips and tricks on how to make perfect flaky pie crust, check out this post!
- Cut butter into small cubes and place in the fridge to firm up while you get the rest of your ingredients together.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add in the cold butter and use your hands to press it into the flour mixture until you get quarter sized crumbs.
- Add cold water and combine until dough forms a nice ball but is still slightly sticky.
- Take the formed ball of dough and shape into slightly flattened disk.
- Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This is important to keep the butter from melting so that the crust will be nice and flaky. The chilled dough is also much easier to work with for rolling out.
- You can also make the pie dough up to 2 days in advance and store in the fridge until ready to use!
Galette
- Preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Lightly flour a clean surface. Roll out dough to about ¼ inch thick and about 12 inches across. If you want a cleaner looking galette, you can use a knife to trim the edges of dough to make a perfect circle but it's not necessary.
- Place the dough on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Pit the rainier cherries and slice in half.
- Gently toss together the pitted and sliced rainier cherries, lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch until evenly coated.
- Arrange the cherries on your pie dough, leaving about an inch around the edges.
- Gently fold over the edges of the dough overlapping as you go.
- Brush the edges lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a little extra sugar, if desired.
- Bake at 400°F for 30-40 minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.
- Let cool for at least 10 minutes, then slice and serve with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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