Detroit memories and a perfect fall dessert: Apple Dried Cherry Galette

Sweet/tart russet apples and bourbon-soaked dried cherries create a fall-flavored filling for this easy, rustic galette. Recipe below.

A LITTLE WHILE BACK, WE SPENT SOME TIME IN DETROIT AGAIN, for a beautiful crisp fall weekend of visiting and hanging out and our trademark driving around looking at stuff. One morning, we drove over to Eastern Market just to see what we could see.

We saw plenty. When I was a kid, we would shop at Eastern Market almost every weekend. It was my mom’s go-to for everything from basic produce to fresh poultry. There was another, smaller open-air market not far away, and we patronized that too—usually the small market was our first stop, the shot-in-the-dark part of the trip, and Eastern Market was the last, the thriving purposeful we-know-we’ll-find-it-here stop. And the “it” covered everything, from the basic like potatoes, onions, turnips and beets to the seasonal and the fancy—pears, cherries, prune plums, gooseberries, acorn squash, and even the goose for the holiday table.

Every fall, my mom would always buy a bushel of apples. But not just any apples: russets. Smallish, brownish, dull-looking little apples with no visual promise whatsoever. But in her view, and mine, there is no better apple for baking. It’s so flavorful and marvelous—it’s got just the right amount of heft and sweetness and tartness.

If you live in the UK, russets are still a normal part of life, but in the US they’ve been replaced by flashy new varieties—some of which are quite lovely, but, well, they’re not russets.

These days in the US one gets russets from farmers who specialize in… sigh… heritage varieties, displayed in a sparse presentation that comes with a big price tag. There is no more buying of a bushel of russets unless you want to trade in your firstborn. I’d kind of like to keep my firstborn, she’s pretty terrific all around, so when I saw one farmer selling heirloom apples at a modest price—sweet little boxes of russets (about a pound and a half) for $5—that didn’t seem to me to be endangering the family bond.

A pound and a half of apples is what you need for this Apple Dried Cherry Galette recipe. If you can’t find russets, choose your favorite cooking apple. I recommend Jonathans, Jonagolds or Honeycrisp (which holds its shape beautifully)—or a combo of all of those. And for this galette, we paired the apples with dried tart cherries, plumped with our beloved bourbon. The easy-to-make crust is from the Peach Blueberry Galette we posted here in September. Everything is so simple to assemble and such a wonderful dessert—or, the next morning, a festive little breakfast.

And PS, Eastern Market is actually bigger today than ever—and in the warm weather, every bit of it is bustling with commerce, with everything on offer from the utilitarian basics for the everyday table all the way up to pricey hipster pastries and locally roasted coffees. We came home with the apples, some beautiful leeks, a couple of winter squash for baking (2 for $1 hurrah!), a bunch of tiny mild locally grown Japanese turnips and some of that roasted-in-Detroit coffee. It was just pleasant and satisfying all around.

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Apple Dried Cherry Galette

Servings 6 to 8 slices

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 3/4 cup dried tart cherries
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup bourbon
• 1-1/2 pounds cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced (we recommend russets, Jonathans, Jonagolds or Honeycrisp)
• 2-1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter

For the crust:

• 1-1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1 large egg
• milk, half & half or cream
• 1 stick unsalted butter, 1/4 pound, cut into pieces
• 2 teaspoons iced water

Instructions

• First, make the filling. Put the dried cherries in a shallow bowl—I used a soup plate—pour on the bourbon and let everything soak until the cherries soften. If after 30 minutes the cherries aren’t particularly soft, put the mixture in a small saucepan and gently heat for a few minutes. Five minutes tops should do it.
• Peel, core and slice the apples. Slice them pretty thinly—I cut each one into 12 slices. Toss with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 2-1/2 tablespoons sugar.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet. Add the apple slices, toss to coat, then gently sauté for about 5 minutes. You want them to start to soften and get a bit of color, but not to cook totally or fall apart.
• Drain the cherries (save the bourbon—for drinking, of course), then add them to the skillet. Sauté everything together for a minute or so, then pour into a bowl. Cool completely.
• Prepare the crust. Put flour, salt and 1 tablespoon sugar into a food processor and pulse to combine. Lightly beat the egg in a measuring cup. Add enough milk, half & half or cream to measure 1/3 cup, then beat to combine. Add butter to food processor and pulse a few times; you want the butter in pea-sized pieces, not totally combined.
• Drizzle 1/4 cup of the egg mixture over the dough and pulse until it starts to come together. (Reserve the rest of the egg mixture, covering and refrigerating it.) Don’t overprocess. Transfer dough to a bowl and add iced water, mixing it in with your hands. Form dough into a disk, wrap with plastic and chill for 20 to 30 minutes (see Kitchen Notes).
• Make the galette. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Lightly flour a large square of parchment paper (more than 12 inches across). Using a rolling pin (we love the KMN Aluminum Rolling Pin, with inch markings that show you the diameter of the crust as you roll it out), roll out your crust into a 12-inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. Gently slide parchment paper with crust onto the hotel pan or baking sheet.
• (Or you can use a COOKINA nonstick reusable baking sheet. No need to oil or flour it. Roll out the crust on the baking sheet, then slide it and the crust onto the hotel pan, just as you would the parchment paper.)
• Mound fruit in the middle of the crust and spread it out evenly, leaving a 1-1/2-inch border around the edges. If any juices have accumulated in the bottom of the bowl, leave them there—you don’t want your crust to get soggy and heavy. Gently fold the crust up over the fruit filling, pleating it to hold in the fruit. As Terry says, imperfect is perfect. Brush the crust generously with the remaining egg mixture.
• Place the hotel pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake galette for 35 to 45 minutes. The crust should be golden brown, and the filling should be bubbling a little. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool at least 20 minutes, or to room temperature. Serve it warm or at room temperature. It’s nice with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or, honestly, it’s lovely on its own.
• Make ahead: Store the completely cooled galette in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day.

Kitchen Notes

Chill how long? Most galette recipes recommend chilling the dough for at least 2 hours and up to overnight before rolling out, but I find that chilling it for just 20 or 30 minutes actually works better. Longer than that and the dough comes out of the fridge stiff and stubborn, and you have to wait for it to warm up a bit before you can roll it out.