A ♥ Letter to Summer: Sweet Cherry & Blueberry Galette

Dear Summer,
I love you for a lot of things. I love you for the golden glow you give me. I love you for your long afternoons. I love you for juicy watermelons, eaten with sticky fingers besides a dwindling stack of napkins.
I love you for your sounds: sometimes, a hazy stillness, sometimes, crickets chirping, and sometimes, loud, carefree music, blasted from a car with the top down.
I love you for your time; finally, finally, after a year of wanting to do everything, but having to do all the other things, I have time. Time to sit in the sun, time to visit the forests and coastlines. Time to make croissants.
I love you for fireflies. Is that weird? But they are magical. They turn every dusty rose sunset into a party, illuminated by bobbing green lights, and the music is supplied by the crickets and the birds. A Summer party.
I love you because you make it appropriate to eat ice cream every single day. For every single meal. With all the toppings. (At least, I think it’s appropriate. Is it? Don’t tell me.)
I love you for adventure: for traveling, for visiting, exploring other countries and cultures. Do you remember the time we spent a month in Switzerland together, Summer? We ate so much chocolate and we had muesli up in the Alps. And the time we spent two months in Israel, where I grew to love it like a home? We rode on camels, swam in a salty, turquoise sea, and ate the best street food of our lives.
You have left me with the best memories of my life, Summer. I love you for that, and for so many more things.
So here is a galette for you. A galette with the flakiest crust, a crust that crumbles into butteriness on your plate, or in your hands. I filled it with your prettiest, the fruits you give us when you are here: shiny red cherries, blue(est)berries, and they were so good that they needed next to nothing to shine- only lemon, a little sugar and some vanilla. You know what that is, Summer? It is perfection. Pure and simple.
Also, because I love you, I topped it with a heart. That is the only way to say I love you: with a heart. Preferably, one made of butter and sugar.
Ok, Summer. This letter is long enough. Bye. Please don’t go. Please stay forever. Will you?
♥, Chaya

Yield: one galette, serving 6

Why I love this recipe: sweet blueberries and cherries are livened up with the addition of tart lemon zest, juice, vanilla and not much else, leaving their true flavors to shine loud and clear. This crust is incredibly flaky, thanks to just the right amount of apple cider vinegar and frozen butter. Baking it long and high gives the crust a gorgeous, golden brown color and makes for sturdy, portable slices. Be sure to let the galette cool for an hour or so after it’s baked, so the fruit juices have a chance to settle. 

For the galette crust:

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, frozen
• 3 ounces ice cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 egg yolk, mixed with water
• turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

For the filling:

• 2 cups pitted Bing or other sweet cherries
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• juice and zest of half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Use your fingers to cut in half the stick of cold butter until it is the size of peas. Then cut in the other half of the butter, leaving it in bigger, visible pieces.
2. Add the apple cider vinegar to the water and make a well in the center of the flour and butter mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix the water into the flour until just combined.
3. If the dough seems dry, add more water a couple of teaspoons at a time. Press the dough together,  form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the the dough in the freezer for an hour, or in the fridge overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 400º. Halve the pitted cherries and leave a few of them whole.Toss the cherries, blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, zest, vanilla and cornstarch together in a bowl. Refrigerate until needed.
5. On a lightly floured surface, flour the chilled disk of dough. Begin to roll it out, rolling in one direction at a time. As you roll it, pick it up and rotate it, to ensure that it doesn’t stick to any surfaces. Use flour as you need to.
6. Roll the dough into a 10” circle and trim the edges. Re-roll the edges and with a knife or a cookie cutter, cut out a heart shape from the scraps.
7. Transfer the galette dough to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Fill with the fruit filling, piling the fruit high in the middle. Crimp the edges together.
8. Brush the dough with the egg yolk and sprinkle liberally with turbinado sugar, doing the same to the little pastry heart cutout. Place the heart on top of the galette, in the center.
9. Bake for ten minutes at 400º. Then lower the heat to 375º and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the juices bubble. Cool before serving. Top with vanilla ice cream.