So many peaches. It’s a little deceiving when you are at the farm stand, the sun is shining, birds are chirping, bees buzzing, and the smell of fresh fruit is taking over your brain, how much might be too much?? Who cares?? It’s summer!! Oh, wait, where am I going to put those? If you read my post on blueberries, then you probably can guess how I did with peaches at the market…yeah…there are a lot of ’em in my freezer, next to the blueberries, ice packs and skinny cow bars. 🙂 Before I tossed them in the freezer, I texted my BFF from high school who is turning into an incredible pastry chef, she goes to the CIA in Hyde Park, NY and asked for a spectacular dough recipe that I could use to make a tart. This is what she coughed up.
Makes 1-8″ tart traditionally, but I made 4 baby ones instead.
Simple Dough
- 1 1/2 c all purpose flour (I used whole wheat, but then had to add more moisture at the end-keep reading)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 Splenda packet (I added this based on my research on the Internet with other recipes-sorry!)
- 10 T unsalted cold butter cut into 1/2″ cubes
- 4-8 T ice cold water
- 1 C brown sugar
- 1 C chopped pecans
- 1 C oats
- pinch of salt
- 4 T butter or margarine (melted or softened and worked into oat mix)
Instructions
In food processor, pulse flour and salt to combine, about three 1-second pulses. Scatter butter pieces over flour, then pulse until texture resembles coarse bread crumbs and butter pieces about the size of small peas remain, ten to twelve 1-second pulses. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon water over mixture and process 1 second; repeat until dough begins to form small curds and holds together when pinched with fingers. Empty dough onto work surface; dough will be crumbly (if dough has large dry areas, sprinkle additional 2 teaspoons water over dry areas and incorporate by gently fluffing entire amount of dough with fingers). Using bench scraper, gather dough into rough mound about 12 inches long and 4 inches wide (mound should be perpendicular to edge of counter). Beginning from farthest end, use heel of a hand to smear about one sixth of dough against work surface away from you. Repeat until all dough has been worked. Using bench scraper, gather dough again and repeat. Dough should now be cohesive. Form dough into 4-inch disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until cold and firm but malleable, about 1 hour.For fruit I added about 1/4 c fruit mixed with 3/4 tsp flour for EACH tart. Specifically I made: 2 peach/lemon tarts by taking skinned cut up peaches, a dash of nutmeg, a dash of cinnamon, a squeeze of lemon, zest of the lemon and the flour and 2 blueberry/ginger/lime tarts by taking blueberries, a squeeze of lime, zest of the lime, and a few shavings of fresh grated ginger. Put the fruit in a mound in the center of each mini tart, folded the edges in to make a little pocket and baked at 350 for 30-45 minutes, my dough was a little bit thicker due to the whole wheat crust. Check for browning at 20-25 and go from there. You want it firm, yet not dry and golden brown. I recommend when you are putting this on a pan to bake use parchment paper or kiss your free form goodbye and call it cobbler. You want it to survive the plating.
When this was all said and done, I had a few leftover peaches in juice, and blueberries, so I popped them in a pie plate and made a little crisp for snacking. Fruit on the bottom then add:
Directions
Put all of these ingredients into a bowl smash ’em together with your hands, get right in there, to make little delish buttery clumps of oat, pat this mixture down on the top of fruit on the pie plate and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 – 60 minutes until bubbly. Hint: put a cookie sheet under the pan to catch the juice that will escape and then consequently burn in your oven causing you grief. Skip that step and just dirty a dish will ya?
Veg Bon Vivant 