The World Table

An interactive culinary compendium: recipes, lexicon and study

Washington · Dessert

Rainier Cherry Galette

  • Intermediate
  • 80 min
  • roughly 2 of 4 for cost
  • Vegetarian

nutty-toasted · bright · rich Leads with toasted, nutty warmth throughout, acid holding everything up to the light, on a rich, rounded finish.

Ingredients

  • 1 disc of all-butter pastry
  • 700g Rainier cherries, pitted and halved
  • 100g sugar
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
  • 2 tbsp ground almonds
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Demerara sugar

Equipment

Sheet pan

The skills inside

Egg wash & the baker’s shine

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

  1. Toss the cherries with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon, and almond extract.
  2. Roll the pastry into a rough 30cm round on a lined tray.
  3. Scatter the ground almonds over the center (they absorb juice and keep the base crisp), then mound the cherries, leaving a 5cm border.
  4. Fold the border up over the fruit in loose pleats, brush with egg, and sprinkle with demerara.
  5. Bake at 200C for 40-45 min until the pastry is deep gold and the juices bubble. Cool 20 min. 45 min

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

Egg wash & the baker’s shine 34 recipes

  • Applied thin and even over every surface that will show, with no bare patches and no ridges or brush lines standing in it.
  • Nothing pooled: no wash run down into the seams, collected in the corners, or welded to the tray around the base.
  • It has not glued shut what needs to move: layers, scores, and cut edges are still free to open in the heat.
  • Baked, the finish is even and glossy across the whole piece and deep gold rather than patchy, with no darker bands where the wash sat heavy.
  • The shine is on the outside only: nothing inside the piece tastes of egg.

Where it goes wrong The wash went on heavy and ran into the scores and down to the tray, so the piece baked sealed along its seams, browned unevenly, and carries dark rubbery ridges where the egg collected.

At the Table

The Pour
Moscato d’Asti
Also Right
Late-harvest Riesling
From the Taps
Witbier
Zero-Proof
Sparkling elderflower

Citrus desserts need a wine sweeter than they are, with acid enough to keep up: light, frothy, and low-proof wins.

Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.

Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Rainier Cherry Galette Search YouTube: J. Kenji López-Alt on Rainier Cherry Galette A YouTube search for J. Kenji López-Alt and this dish. No affiliation.