Mini cherry galettes are your favourite cherry pies but personalized and easier to make. Fresh cherries on a buttery, flaky puff pastry crust baked until golden brown then topped with ice cream. It’s the perfect summer dessert.
(Looking for a refreshing cherry treat? Make a pitcher of sweet cherry vanilla milkshake. It’s such a delicious way to stay cool.)
If you love pies but don’t want to deal with homemade pie crust and finicky dough, you will love galettes.
They’re so easy to make (I like using store-bought, all-butter puff pastry), easy to customize (pick whatever fruit is in season) and even easier to eat.
This mini cherry galette recipe is an example: stir fresh cherries, place on puff pastry, bake, top with ice cream, enjoy. Let’s get to it.
What is a galette?
A galette is a rustic, free-form fruit tart or pie that’s made of a thin layer of fruit on top of a buttery, crisp crust.
Unlike a traditional pie where the edges are perfectly crimped, or a tart where you get straight, stiff sides from the tart pan, galette dough is generally just laid out then folded over the fruit.
It’s your favourite fruit pie but lower maintenance.
Why you’ll love these mini cherry pie tarts
Whether you know these mini cherry galettes as mini cherry pies or mini cherry tarts or mini cherry pie tarts, you’ll love this recipe because:
- It uses the season’s best cherries. If you’re ever wondering what to do with the 10 pounds of cherries you just picked, this is it.
- This recipe is so easy to make. There’s no complicated kneading or shaping and it’s quicker to prep and bake than pie.
- It’s so customizable. No cherries? No problem. Try this rustic apple galette or pick any fruit you like. You can even make a savoury galette.
- There’s no stress making it. A galette doesn’t have to be perfect. The whole point of it is to look imperfect and rustic so don’t worry if yours is misshapen or juices came out the sides. Just have fun!
- Small-batch is great to satisfy those cravings without going overboard on the calories.
- Cherry galette with puff pastry is perfect with ice cream. That’s certainly more than enough reason for me! You can also drizzle it with glaze or even melted chocolate.
What you’ll need
First thing you’ll want to do is pit your cherries then gather your ingredients.
Ingredients
In addition to cherries, you’ll need:
- Store-bought puff pastry (usually comes with 2 sheets but you’ll only need one) — if you can make it from scratch, go for it. If buying, buy the all-butter variety.
- Sugar
- Cornstarch
- Lemon juice and zest
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Egg and milk for the egg wash
Tools
You don’t need special tools to make mini cherry tarts but the following are very useful:
- Bench scraper to cut the pastry
- Small sharp knife to score the pastry
- Pastry brush for the egg wash
- A cherry pitter is also a life saver.
Easy recipe with photos
1 PREHEAT. Preheat your oven to 400F. Prep a rimmed baking sheet by lining with parchment paper. Set aside.
2 COMBINE. In a medium sized bowl, stir cherries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt until well combined. Set aside for a few minutes to allow the flavours to blend.
3 CUT. On a lightly floured surface, gently roll out your puff pastry into a 10×10 inch square (about ¼ inch thick). Cut into 4 equal pieces. Transfer the pastries to your baking sheet.
4 SCORE. Score each piece of pastry leaving a ½ inch border around the edges. Prick the middle with a fork to help that portion stay flat during baking.
5 FILLING. Transfer your cherry pie filling into the middle of each pastry piece.
6 BAKE. Brush the edges with egg wash and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the pastry turns golden brown and the cherries are nice and soft.
Expert tips and recipe FAQs
To make the recipe for these mini cherry galettes even easier, here are some baking tips and answers to your frequently asked questions.
If you love fresh cherries as much as we do, chances are you also borderline worship the person who invented the cherry pitter.
Before we invested in one (and they are not expensive — this is the exact one we have), we tried all kinds of hacks — from using a straw to using a paper clip. All of the hacks we tried were difficult and resulted in very sore, very red fingers.
I strongly recommend you save yourself the trouble and buy a cherry pitter. Your hands and fingers will thank you.
Did you know there are 1,000 varieties of cherries grown in the United States? I honestly don’t give it much thought because they’re usually just labeled “cherries” at the supermarket.
In any case, while I always use sweet cherries for this recipe, you can also use sour cherries if you prefer. Just skip the lemon juice. That tart flavour would go so well with the sweet ice cream!
I’ve tried using frozen cherries to make cherry galettes but was never successful. The filling always turns to mush.
So no, I won’t recommend using frozen cherries here.
Mini cherry galettes are best the day they are made but will keep on your counter in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Just toast it for a few minutes to bring back that crunch then serve immediately.
These galettes will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container on your counter. Best not to refrigerate because the puff pastry will get soggy.
If you want to double the recipe, simply double the ingredients but bake for the same amount of time. The pastries should fit in one standard size large baking sheet.
Puff pastry is one of the things I always buy in-store. It’s very complicated to make from scratch (for me) and since I can get high quality frozen puff pastry at the store, that’s what I always do.
And it really is a wonderful ingredient to work with, when handled correctly.
– Thaw it properly. It usually says how and for how long on the package.
– Puff pastry should never be warm to the touch or even room temperature. It should be pliable but still cool.
– Don’t use puff pastry too soon, example: when it’s still frozen, or it will break.
– And remember that once you’ve thawed the sheets you can’t refreeze them so use those puff pastries up.
I prefer using puff pastry but you can definitely use pie dough to make galettes — store-bought or from scratch. See my recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Galette for reference on how this would affect prep and baking time.
Other cherry dessert recipes
Cherries are one of summer’s most beloved fruit and we just can’t get enough of them! If you love incorporating them into cherry desserts like me, you’ll love these:
- Cherry chocolate chip ice cream is packed with roasted sweet cherries and chocolate chips for a homemade ice cream flavour you’ll want to make all summer long. It’s so easy to make, you don’t even need an ice cream maker.
- This easy cherry cake recipe is so easy to make and so delicious you’d want to bake and snack on it all summer long. Dense but soft, not too sweet, bursting with wonderful cherry flavour.
- Looking for something to serve at your next get-together? This chocolate cherry bundt cake is packed with fresh cherries and dark chocolate chips. Looks impressive but secretly very easy to make.
- Make some puff pastry cherry hand pies for your next summer picnic, afternoon snacking or breakfast-on-the-go.
Mini Cherry Galettes Recipe with Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- 1 sheet butter puff pastry thawed according to package instructions
- 280 g pitted and halved sweet cherries roughly 2 cups / 30 cherries
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 pc large egg lightly beaten with 2 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F. Prep a rimmed baking sheet by lining with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, stir cherries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt until well combined. Set aside for a few minutes to allow the flavours to blend.
- On a lightly floured surface, gently roll out your puff pastry into a 10×10 inch square (about ¼ inch thick). Cut into 4 equal pieces and transfer the pastries to your baking sheet.
- Score each piece of pastry leaving a ½ inch border around the edges.
- Dock the middle with a fork to help that portion stay flat during baking.
- Transfer your cherry pie filling into the middle of each pastry piece.
- Brush the edges with egg wash.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the pastry turns golden brown and the cherries are nice and soft. Top with ice cream, drizzle with glaze or melted chocolate. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Frozen puff pastry is usually sold in boxes of 2 sheets. This recipe only requires 1 sheet so make sure to only thaw 1. You can easily double the recipe to use both and make 8 mini galettes.
- Galettes are usually rounds but I find that when making mini galettes, making them squares is a quicker and easier way to do it. If you want a more traditional looking galette, you can shape each of your pastry pieces into hexagons and fold the sides over the fruit.
- Once you mix your cherry pie filling, it will start to become very juicy. When transferring the cherries to the pastries, make sure to limit the amount of juice so that your galettes don’t end up being too soft and mushy.
- See post for more tips and FAQs.
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only.
Happy baking!
Did you make this mini cherry galette or mini cherry tart recipe? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
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