Sweet Cherry and Blueberry Galette
Now, I know summer is practically over (waahhh) and cherries are probably only available in the frozen food section of your supermarket, but I’ll never remember to post about this delicious goodness unless I do it now.
Plus, I think it is time we answer this burning question. Can you bake with sweet cherries?
I’ve grown up thinking there are pie cherries and sweet, eating cherries. Pie cherries are tart and give baked pies a wonderful flavor. Sweet cherries are deeeelicious! Most growers will also say that sweet cherries are best served as a fresh fruit and not as an ingredient in baked goods.
I decided to find out for myself.
A little while ago I had some leftover pie dough. I like to practice making pie dough when I make chicken pot pie. That’s normal, right? This time, there was a significant amount of dough leftover – not for a full pie, but for a rustic, galette-type pie.
As soon as I saw how much dough I had left, I knew what I was going to try and make – this mini blueberry galette recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I had some blueberries, but not quite enough, so I decided to be a little rebellious and throw some sweet cherries into the mix.
Spoiler alert, it was tasty.
By the way, the blueberries were a combo of fresh and frozen. It was a real hodgepodge night! I pitted and halved the sweet cherries. I don’t know exactly what variety they were – whatever the grocery stores sell in the summer. I don’t think they were Bing, maybe Chelan.
This would probably be a good time to mention that I used the recipe as a general guideline, but there was no real measuring going on here. It’s how I roll. A lot.
So, there’s a little sugar, a little cornstarch.
Stir it up, pour the mixture on the dough. I totally forgot to add the lemon zest, but now that I look closely, I can see I left in some blueberry stems for extra…something. Ruffage?
Then you fold the sides up. If there’s a crack in your dough, you can dab some water on and then press the pieces together to make it reseal.
I also dabbed some water on the edges of the folded up dough and lightly sprinkled some sugar on to give the dough some added sweetness. If you’re going to be bad, be bad. 😉
I forgot the lemon zest, but I did remember the lemon juice. Go figure.
The Pioneer Woman dabbed some butter on top of her galette before baking, so I did too. Monkey see, monkey do. I’m honestly not sure if I would have noticed the difference either way. Maybe I should make it again to test that theory. I would make that sacrifice for the sake of science.
I baked it according to the directions. 425 degrees for approximately 15 minutes or so. With these type of experiments, I tend to keep a closer eye on baking time.
This was the happy result.
The verdict? Can you bake with sweet cherries? Yes. Definitely. My family devoured this rustic pie.
Would I make an entire pie out of sweet cherries…probably not. It’s hard to beat the tart flavor of pie cherries. Based on the picture above, I also have a theory that the skin on sweet cherries is firmer than that of pie cherries, but I could be totally wrong. However, I liked how the sweet cherries rounded out and added flavor to the blueberries. I would definitely not be afraid to add them to a berry pie.
I hope you’re having fun experimenting in the kitchen too!
I’m no stranger to pies. Nope. Definitely not. Love them all.
