Peach Tart

Two weeks ago I made a Peach Cake from Cooks' Illustrated.  Tonight I wanted to make a Peach Tart that I had made last year, with a rich pie crust and a thin fruit topping.  The original recipe that I made was from the "Simplest Apple Tart" recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (modified by using peaches, not apples).I used 2 perfectly ripe peaches for this tart, and it looked bakery-beautiful. The raw peaches were very sweet, but when we ate the tart tonight, the peaches tasted a little... tart. Perhaps I should have mixed them with sugar, like I did for the Peach Cake recipe.  Still, this is a great recipe to remember and use for all kinds of fruits.

Peach Tart

Rich Tart Crust
(MB: Egg yolks and a little extra butter enrich this crust, giving it more flavor and body than a typical pie crust. In fact, it's like a great big cookie.)

1.5 cups (7 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
10 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
2 egg yolks
3 - 4 Tablespoons ice-cold water

Preheat oven to 425

1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar in a food processor; pulse once or twice.  Add the butter and process until resembles corn meal (10 seconds).  Add the egg yolks and process another few seconds.

2. Place the mixture in a bowl, sprinkle with 3 Tablespoons water, and gather dough into a ball. Add 4th Tablespoon of water if needed.  Flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or freeze for 10 minutes.

3. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap, and fit it into a fluted tart pan.  Prick all over with a fork.  Line the dough with tin foil and weight it down with dried beans or rice.

4. Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove to cool, and decrease heat to 375.

Peach Filling
2 ripe peaches, pealed and sliced
sugar to sprinkle
2 - 3 Tablespoons peach jam

Slice each peach into 16ths (cut peach into quarters, then slice each quarter into 4 pieces).
Place peaches in concentric circles in the pre-baked pie shell.
Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 375 for 30 - 40 minutes.
Heat jam + 1/2 Tbsp water in microwave for 20 seconds.  Brush the warm jam onto the top of the tart.
Cool and serve.

Pie crust in food processor

Ripe Georgia peaches

Chill pie crust, then roll out between sheets of wax paper

Pie crust fitted to tart pan

Line the crust with foil, and weight it down with rice

Pre-Baked crust

Peach tart before baking

The baked tart, glazed with peach preserves

Our favorite peach preserves, from Braswell's