Rustic Peach Tart –

This year, the Farmers’ Market had a peach variety that was almost too good to be true. It was perfect for baking, infusing, and eating out of hand, but it was also sweet enough to make desserts.

It’s that time of year again. The start of peach season. The last of the nectarines. The first of the pears. A new year, a new favorite fruit. But what will you make? I am working on something delicious. It is my new favorite pie, and I think you’ll like it, too.

This is the recipe for the peach tart I eat for dessert every night. I made the dough the night before, then popped it into the oven right before I was about to go to bed. When I woke up in the morning, the tart was ready to eat!

So, there’s a backstory, and I believe it’s time to dig a bit further into it.

Even though the recollection still hurts, I feel obligated to tell people about my humiliation. Those who are facing comparable difficulties may find solace in the fact that they are not alone.

The scene is set in the early 1990s, in Hawaii, around Thanksgiving.

After 17 months of being in a long-distance relationship with Jeff, I relocated from San Diego to Hawaii to see where our relationship would lead.

Jeff was a young submarine man stationed out of Pearl Harbor on the USS Helena. I’m a legal secretary who is somewhat older but yet very youthful.

My lover happened to be out at sea on this vacation, as luck would have it.

This was a statement I would hear a lot over the following 24 years, but I’m not complaining since he was there for the births (and conception!) of our children!

The submarine service is made up of sailors and their families who are very close. While Jeff was gone, I was welcomed into another family’s house for Thanksgiving with open arms.

The Schonauers are a family from Germany.

They reminded me of the Brady Bunch. His children, her children, their children, and their children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children

“What can I bring?” was my query. “Pie!” was the immediate reaction.

Yikes. I went completely still.

Do I place a pie order with Marie Calendars? Or should I try to create my own?

My inner monologue sounded somewhat like this:

“You’re 28 years old,” says the narrator. You ought to be able to accomplish it. If you can’t make a handmade pie, what sort of girlfriend are you?”

Back then, “homemade” meant opening a can of pie filling and putting it into a made-from-scratch pie shell.

It was obviously above my pay grade to prepare the filling from scratch. Since then, I’ve come a long way…

My pies were not very attractive.

“Hey, they’re sailors,” I told myself. They’re going to adore them. They aren’t going to notice.”

(Plus, it was too late to get a pie from Marie Calendars……)

Dale rushed out to the vehicle when I arrived at the Schonauers’ home to meet… the pies!

The pies, it seems, were the guests of honor at this Thanksgiving Day gathering.

I’ll never forget the expression of shock and disappointment on his face at the same time.

Never.

And until the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, which came out 100 times nicer than my Thanksgiving 1990 pies, it was pretty much the last handmade pie crust I prepared. Without a doubt!

However, there is some good news!

This Rustic Peach Tart is just what I’ve been looking for!

The crust is meant to seem “distressed.”

For pie-crust-challenged individuals like myself, this is a stress-free pie-like treat.

My new favorite adjective is “rustic.” I’m going to run with it!

Fresh Peach Tart, Rustic

Serves	10
Prep time	Time: 20 minutes
Cook time	1 hour and ten minutes
Total amount of time	30 minutes, 1 hour
Meal type	Dessert, Breakfast

Ingredients

Filling

• a half-pound fresh, juicy peaches, peeled and sliced
• Depending on the natural sweetness of the peaches, use 1/3-3/4 cup sugar. (To make up to 3/4 cup of brown sugar, mix brown sugar with white sugar.)
• 2 tblsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• a quarter teaspoon of salt
• Cornstarch, 2 tblsp

Crust

• Flour (1/2 cup)
• a quarter teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter, very cold
• Water (4-5 Tablespoons)

Note

With this recipe for Rustic Fresh Peach Tart, you won’t have to worry about making a flawlessly formed crust. If you want to take it a step further, you may use your favorite store-bought crust! Also, depending on the sweetness of the peaches, the sugar in this recipe may be modified. Use about a third to a third of a cup of sugar. And if you want to combine brown and white, go for it!

Enjoy –

Directions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. To make the filling, combine peaches, sugar, lemon juice, and salt in a large mixing basin. Combine by sprinkling cornstarch on top. Remove from the equation. In a food processor or mixer, combine flour, salt, and sugar for the crust. Mix in the chilled butter until the dough resembles coarse grain. Slowly drizzle in the cold water while the machine is working, just until the dough stays together. Make sure you don’t mix for more than 30 seconds. Refrigerate the dough for approximately 10 minutes. The goal is to prevent the butter from melting entirely into the dough. Remove the dough and roll it out rapidly on a floured board to a diameter of 13-14 inches. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Assemble

Step 2

Place the filling in the middle of the crust, leaving a 2-inch rim around the edge. Fold the rim up over the filling gently. Preheat the oven to 375°F and bake for an hour to 70 minutes. Cover any parts of the crust that are starting to brown too much with tin foil until the baking has finished.

 

Hello, I’m Just A Little Bite, and I’m here to share the love of food. When I was a young girl, I had a mom who thought it was a terrible idea to feed me a lot of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. She told me that fruits and vegetables were only good for decoration and that the main course was anything with a high fat content.. Read more about rustic peach galette and let us know what you think.