White Peach Tart

A perfect summer dessert should be easy to put together and it should definitely utilize and enhance the delicious fruit available this time of year. There are quite a few types of desserts that fit these requirements: crumbles, cobblers, and grunts for example, but sometimes I feel fancy and I want to make a tart. Something about lining a pan with fruit arranged in concentric circles just makes me feel elegant. What? Just me?



Tarts can be really easy you guys, especially when you can just pat the crust into a pan (no rolling! and for the love of unicorns, no blind baking!) Then, all you have to do is slice up some of summer's sweetest, blushing white peaches (no peeling!), toss them gently with a bit of ginger and lime for a punch of flavor, tuck them into your previously patted crust, and wait patiently.



After a few minutes in a hot oven the peaches soften and release their juices, the corny crust crisps and browns, and it's done. A perfect summer pair, all baked up in a fancy dessert that was a cinch to put together.

Not that this even needs to be said, but the leftovers (if there are any) make a delicious breakfast.

White Peach Tart with Ginger and Lime in a Cornmeal Crust
yield, 1 10'' or 11'' tart

For the Crust
This makes a nice, thick crust (about 1/4'') which is my preference. If you prefer your crusts on the thin side, you may want to set aside a bit of the dough for another use before patting it into the pan.

4 ounces corn flour (or very fine cornmeal)
4 ounces all purpose flour
1.75 ounces sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 ounces butter, melted and cooled
1 egg yolk

1. In a medium bowl, stir the flours, sugar, salt and lime zest. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add in the olive oil, butter and egg yolk. Stir gently to combine.
2. Turn the dough out into a 10'' or 11'' removable bottom tart pan and pat it evenly on the bottom and up the sides. Refrigerate the shell while you prepare the filling.

For the Filling

4 medium white peaches
1'' piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
juice of 1/2 a lime
1.75 ounces turbinado sugar (or white sugar)
3/4 ounce all purpose flour
1 ounce cold butter (cut into small cubes)

Preheat oven to 425º

1. Cut the peaches into wedges about 1/2'' thick (I cut my peaches into eighths).
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the grated ginger, lime zest and juice, turbinado sugar and flour. Add the sliced peaches and toss gently to coat them in the mixture.
3. Arrange the peaches in tight concentric circles on top of the prepared shell, pour any juices left in the bowl on top, and dot the tart with the cold butter cubes.
4. Slide the tart into the oven and bake until the peaches are soft and have released their juices and the crust is golden, about 30-40 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature with whipped cream, creme fraiche or a scoop of ice cream.

Simple Stone Fruit Tartlets

Take a trip to the market and pick up the most luscious stone fruit you can find, but let it sit on your counter in a bowl for a few days, admire it, arrange it, enjoy its sweet smell. Then, when it is ripe and juicy and in danger of bruising, slice it up and make a tart.




Heck, make a whole bunch of little tarts to share with your friends. Pretend you're Swedish and invite everyone over for fika. I don't know about you, but sharing a cup of coffee and a few bites of something sweet and buttery sounds like a perfect little break in the day to me, but it's summertime so let's keep it nice and easy. Less than 5 ingredients easy.




Roll out some pastry, maybe homemade (maybe not) make sure that it is made from butter and only butter (til death do us part). Cut it into little squares or rectangles or circles if you want, just make sure the pieces are large enough to cradle half of an apricot or a few slices of fuzzy peach. Sprinkle the whole mess with sugar, bake until golden, and enjoy the simple goodness of fresh fruit in a buttery crust.



If you've never tried making your own puff pastry, give it a go with rough puff pastry. It takes a little time, but it's not too difficult and the final product will make you feel like a pastry genius. Plus, when your freezer is stocked with a few sheets of the good stuff, it makes recipes like this a cinch to pull together on the fly. The recipe below makes quite a bit and just think how fancy you'll feel when you tell your pals you made it yourself.

What you'll find below is more formula than recipe, easily adaptable to stone fruit in the summer and apples and pears in the fall and winter. Add some spices or serve these tarts with whipped cream, they're good any way you slice it (pun intended).

Simple Stone Fruit Tartlets
inspired by Not Without Salt
yield 18-20 tartlets (depending on size)

It's super important that you make these tarts with very cold pastry and a very hot oven. I've made them a few times now and had the greatest success baking the pastry when it was just shy of frozen. The ones pictured above were baked in an oven that wasn't quite hot enough and while they were delicious, the next batch was quite a bit flakier.

1/2 recipe rough puff pastry (recipe and photo tutorial here) OR 1 sheet store bought puff pastry (all butter please!)
Assorted stone fruit, a pound or so
 - 1 apricot will yield 2 tartlets
 - 1 small peach will yield 3 tartlets
 - 1 small nectarine will yield 3 tartlets
about 1/3c crunchy sugar: turbinado sugar works great, as does organic cane sugar which is generally a bit coarser than granulated sugar, vanilla sugar works well here if you have it
1 egg or 2T milk, cream or even water
Confectioner's sugar to finish (optional)

Preheat oven to 400º

1.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to a 1/4'' thickness. With a knife or pastry cutter, cut the pastry into 2 1/2''-3'' squares or circles (they don't have to be perfect, this is supposed to be easy!). You want them large enough to fit half of an apricot or about 1/3 of a piece of stone fruit. Place the cut squares on a parchment lined baking sheet and put them in the freezer for at least 20min while you prepare the fruit.
2. For apricots: gently tear them in half. For peaches and nectarines: remove the pits and thinly slice the fruit into 1/8'' slices. Try to keep the halves together while you are slicing them, it will make it easier to fan the slices on top of the tarts.
3. Remove the puff pastry from the freezer and brush with a beaten egg (or milk or cream or water in a pinch), sprinkle with sugar, and place the the apricot halves or fanned slices of peaches or nectarines on top. Finish the fruit with another light sprinkle of sugar (if desired) and slide the pan into the oven. Bake until the puff pastry is golden brown and the fruit has softened, 15-20 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature. Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired.

Bonus watermelon smile. Because it's summertime.

Peach Sorbet with Frangelico

See you guys, I told you I loved peaches. They were on sale this weekend so I picked up few too many pounds (as is my custom) with the intention of cooking up some ginger-peach butter, but then it got too hot and I couldn't muster the courage to stand in front of the stove stirring hot jam for a few hours. So sorbet it was! This refreshing sorbet has been my go-to dinner party dessert all summer, and as long as I've remembered to freeze the canister of my ice cream machine it is so easy to put together. I love using a little nip of booze in my sorbets and have somehow amassed a drawer full of little bottles (thanks mom!). This time I chose Frangelico which is a hazelnut liqueur but I imagine it would be mighty tasty with Amaretto, Chambord, Kirsch, or Bourbon.

Peach and Frangelico Sorbet
Adapted From David Lebovitz's, The Perfect Scoop
2lbs ripe peaches
2/3c water
3/4c sugar
1t lemon juice
2T Frangelico or other liqueur (optional, but tasty)

1. Pit and chop the peaches, but don't bother peeling them. Cook them with the water in a medium saucepan until they are soft and cooked all the way through.
2. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the sugar. Cool the mixture to room temperature then blend thoroughly in a blender or food processor, I used my immersion blender for this step. If there are any large bits of peel remaining, fish them out. Stir in the lemon juice and liqueur and chill thoroughly.
3. Freeze the chilled mixture in your ice cream machine, following manufacturer's instructions. Store in the freezer in an airtight container.

Notes:
- Try a scoop of this sorbet topped with champagne or prosecco for an amazing, Bellini inspired dessert.
- I've also made this with white peaches and they make the loveliest pink sorbet, as pictured here.