Let’s celebrate Summer produce with an easy Peach & Cherry Crostata! But first…

Do you know the difference between a galette and a crostata?

Well, there really isn’t one, aside from the origins of the words — galette is French and crostata is Italian. They are both a rustic, open-faced pastry made with a rolled out dough, which is then covered (partially) with some sort of filling (usually fruit, but you can also make them savory with veggies)! A border of about 2 inches of dough is left so that it can be folded over to create the crust on the outside.

Last Summer I made a Peach, Lemon & Thyme Galette. This year, now that I’ve been educated on the only difference between these 2 badass pastries, and as we all know have a love for Italy — I’ve made a Peach and Cherry Crostata. 😉

This time around, I made some adjustments. I decided to use the dough from my Honey Pie recipe, because I’m convinced it makes the best, most buttery, crunchy, flaky crust around.

Servings: 8

Prep time: about 45 minutes

Patient waiting time: 1 hour + overnight + a bit of cooling time

Cook time: about 30 minutes

Easy Peach & Cherry Crostata Ingredients

for dough

(makes one large crostata or 3 small ones)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 TSP granulated sugar
• 1/2 TSP salt
• 1/2 cup frozen salted butter (I used unsalted butter for the honey pie, but opted for salted butter this time)
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup ice

for filling

• 3 freshly sliced large peaches (leave the peel on) — I used Organic white peaches this time. Depending on the ripeness of the peaches, I found that there are different techniques to slice. Tips below!

• About 12 cherries, pitted

Use a small sharp knife to cut around the pit, twist one side off, kind of like it’s an avocado. Take the pit out of the other side. I cut some of the halves in half, for placement around the crostata, because they fit better on top of the peach slices, but this is totally up to you.

• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 TBSP flour
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon
• 1/2 TBSP corn starch

for egg wash

• 1 egg + 1 TBSP water, stirred together with a fork or whisk

Easy Peach & Cherry Crostata Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 TSP granulated sugar & 1/2 TSP salt. Cut 1/2 cup frozen butter into about 1″ cubes. Add to mixture. Use a pastry cutter to combine until everything is pretty well blended. It’s okay for pea-sized pieces of butter to remain. You can also use a fork for this step.
2. In a glass measuring cup, mix together 1/2 cup cold water, 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar & 1/2 cup ice. Add 2 TBSP of this mixture to the flour mixture from above. Using the pastry cutter, mix until liquid is fully incorporated. Add more of the liquid mixture, 1 TBSP at a time, until the dough starts to come together (It’s very likely you won’t use all of the liquid — I used about half). Note: The consistency should look similar to the above photo. Start to form a ball with your hands, incorporating remaining dry bits. Use your hands to form the dough together into a flat disc, wrap in plastic & refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

While the dough chills, prep your filling.

1. Slice peaches and pit cherries (check out my tips in the Ingredients section above)
2. Place prepped fruit in a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl mix together 1/8 cup honey, 1 TBSP flour, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp lemon and 1/2 TBSP corn starch until incorporated
4. Pour liquid over fruit and mix until everything is evenly coated.

Time to assemble!

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a medium-sized baking sheet with parchment paper. Note: You will be putting the crostata into the fridge, so make sure the baking sheet will fit! If you don’t have one, find another flat surface, like a cutting board to prep on. You can always slide the cold crostata onto a baking sheet very easily later!
2. Once the dough has chilled, generously sprinkle a work surface with flour. Unwrap the dough & place it on the work surface, sprinkling the top with flour. If the dough is too hard, you can let it rest for a few minutes. If the dough seems too sticky at first, generously add more flour.
3. Use a rolling pin with light pressure to roll from the center out, rotating the dough as you go. For 1 large crostata — roll it into about 12″ in diameter & about 1/4 inch thick. For 3 small crostatas, cut the dough into 3 equal parts and roll each out into about 6″circles. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfectly round. I left mine very rustic looking!
4. Move the dough onto your prepped baking sheet (or other surface) by placing the rolling pin in the middle wrapping each side of the dough around the rolling pin, then lifting it onto the sheet.
5. Sprinkle dough with brown sugar, leaving a couple of inches around edge.
6. Assemble peaches onto the crust leaving about a 2″ border (large crostata) or about a 1/2″ – 1″ border (small crostatas) all around. Place your peaches overlapping a bit in a spiral pattern all the way to the center of the dough.
7. I made a large crostata and went around twice in a spiral with the peach slices, leaving a bit of room in the middle for the cherry halves. I ended up cutting a few halves in half again and placing them spaced out on top of the peaches.
8. Fold the dough you left as a border in and press together to hold in the filling. The center will still be open so that you can see the gorgeous fruit!
9. The dough was pretty soft at this point, so I put the whole baking sheet into the fridge overnight. If you don’t have that much time, I would at least leave it in there for a couple hours before baking. My crostata had a lot of juice that leaked out of it while in the fridge — I dumped it out into the sink before baking so that the crostata wasn’t soggy.
10. Brush the crust with egg wash of 1 egg and 1 TBSP water.
11. Sprinkle crust with a bit of sugar. 
12. Bake for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
13. Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan for 10 minutes. 
14. Transfer crostata by sliding the parchment paper off the baking sheet and onto a wire cooling rack. Let cool completely, then ENJOY!

You can top off your crostata with homemade or store bought whip cream and/or ice cream!

Savor that Summer produce,

Corey