Peach Tart

February 9, 2006

One of the delights of summer is the stone fruit. Peaches, nectarines, plums – all wonderful to eat by themselves, but also delicious as part of a summer dessert.

Friends invited us round for dinner at the weekend so I volunteered to provide dessert and headed off to a my favourite fruit supplier looking for inspiration. One of the men was extolling the virtues of the “luvlee peaches” so I succumbed and filled a large bag with them. Further on I grabbed a bag of blanched almonds and I was in business. Peach tart was on the menu.

This recipe takes a little time, but it can be fitted in around other household activities. The tart filling is frangipane which is an almond flavoured cream that complements the peaches perfectly.

You can make your own pastry, or speed things up a bit by buying sweet short pastry. I ground my own almonds in my sice grinder, but you can used ground almonds.

I am not really a kitchen gadget person, but I recently bought a peeler for soft fruit and vegetable. It’s like a potato peeler but has sharp-toothed cutting edges and it works a treat. Otherwise you can slip the peaches into boiling water briefly then the skins will come off easily.

Peach Tart

9 freestone peaches, peeled and quartered
flaked almonds
curls of lemon zest

Pastry:
125g butter
75g icing sugar
200g flour
pinch salt
grated zest of one lemon
1 egg
2 tablespoons iced water

In a food processor, cream the butter and icing sugar. Add the flour, salt, lemon zest and egg and process again then add the iced water. Check the dough, which should stick together when pinched between finger and thumb. Form into a ball, flour lightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. Roll out and line a 28cm pie tin with a removable base. Trim the edges. Place in the freezer for half an hour.

 Preheat the oven to 180C. Press some aluminium foil down onto the pastry and bake the tart case for 15 minutes.

Frangipane:
200g butter
200g castor sugar
2 eggs
200g blanched almonds, pulverized (or use ground almonds)
25g flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Amoretto

Cream the butter and sugar and gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in the Amoretto. Place the ground almonds and flour in a bowl and fold in the butter mixture, till all is well combined. Refrigerate for half an hour to firm up.

Spoon the frangipane mixture into the tart shell. Pushed the quartered peaches, stone side up into the mixture. Sprinkle with the lemon zest curls and flaked almonds. Return to the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. The frangipane should be firm and golden but still soft inside.

Serve slightly warm with thick Greek yoghurt or creme fraiche.

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