Yellow Peaches
Eating a perfectly ripe peach is enough the make anyone feel fuzzy all over.
The mouth-watering yellow peaches, now in season for summer, are my favorite type. They have a slightly acidic, yet ever-so-sweet juicy flesh along with a delicate aroma.
Caramelized Peach Tart
Below is a quick, easy, and absolutely delicious recipe for a “free-formed” caramelized tart. For a recipe such as this one, you may use a high-quality, ready-made puff pastry. Many gourmet supermarkets carry several brands in their frozen food aisle.
If you’re an advanced baker and want to make your own puff pastry from scratch, by all means do so. Either way, the end result will be just peachy!
Free-Formed Caramelized Peach Tart (serves 6)
Ingredients:
- 1 recipe – Puff Pastry Dough (If frozen, use 1 package and remove from freezer 20- 25 minutes prior to rolling out.)
- 6 – Ripe Peaches
- 3 tablespoons – Butter (unsalted)
- 1/2 – Lemon (freshly squeezed)
- 1 cup – Sugar
- 11 inch – Dinner plate (to use as a template)
- 1 – Baking sheet (large enough to place the tart on)
- Ice cream, whipped cream or crème fraîche to garnish
Procedure:
- Preheat the oven to 450°F
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Using the plate as a guide cut out an 11-inch circle.
- Lift the dough onto the baking sheet and twist the dough over itself all the way around to make an edge.
- Once you have created a uniform crust around the edge, press firmly to seal.
- Place the sheet tray in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes to chill the dough.
- In the meantime, peel the peaches. Cut them in half and remove the pit.
- Cut each half in half again to obtain four equal sizes slices. Cut each quarter in half again to obtain a total of eight slices.
- Put the butter in a saucepan, then add the lemon juice and half of the sugar.
- Heat until melted. Then, add the peaches and toss gently.
- Remove peaches one by one and place decoratively on the chilled dough, starting in the center and working in a spiral pattern.
- Try to keep all the peaches facing the same way with the thinner ends all pointing in the same direction. (Appearance counts for a tart!)
- Do not use any extra juice left behind in the pan. It will render the tart soggy!
- Save any remaining juice for a sauce to serve over the ice cream, whipped cream or crème fraîche that may accompany the tart.
- Sprinkle the tart evenly with the remaining sugar and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
- The pastry should be puffed and golden, and the peaches should be caramelized.
- If necessary, you can set the oven on broil to caramelize the peaches a little more. If the outer crust begins to brown too much, cover the edges with some tinfoil.
- Once cooled, serve the tart with whipped cream, crème fraîche and /or vanilla ice cream.