FOOD FRIDAY - TARTE AUX PÊCHES

“Chocolate’s okay, but I prefer a really intense fruit taste. You know when a peach is absolutely perfect... it's sublime. I'd like to capture that and then use it in a dessert.” - Kathy Mattea

When the mellow, warm, fine and sunny weather of Autumn comes it makes you think that Summer has come back just to say goodbye. You shed a few clothes that were made necessary by the low temperatures of just a couple days ago, sip on an iced tea and hanker for a Summer dessert. Too bad if ripe fresh peaches are out season, thankfully there are those you’ve preserved yourself or those that come in a can. In any case, the summery dessert is made, ready to be served on an early Autumn evening…

Upside Down Peach Tart

(Tarte aux Pêches)

Ingredients

350 g puff pastry (we use the frozen variety from the supermarket)

70 g unsalted butter

140 g caster sugar

1 cassia stick

4 perfectly ripe peaches, halved, stoned and each cut into 8 segments

(or use drained, canned peach segments)

Method

Roll out the puff pastry until 3 mm-thick. Using a 27 cm skillet or heavy oven-proof frying pan as a guide, cut out a 27 cm circle of pastry and place on a baking paper lined tray and refrigerate until needed. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

Place the butter in the skillet with the sugar and cassia stick and cook over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the sugar melts and the syrup starts to become lightly golden. Carefully remove the cassia stick.

Arrange a neat layer of peach segments on top of the syrup in the skillet - they can overlap each other but must cover the base of the pan. Cook the peaches over low heat for 5 minutes without moving them, then remove the pan from the heat. 

Remove the pastry circle from the refrigerator and carefully place it on top of the peaches, using the back of a spoon to ease the edges of the pastry down between the peaches and the pan as if tucking in a blanket. Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden and you can see juices bubbling around the outside.  Remove from the oven and stand for 10 minutes before carefully inverting the tart onto a serving plate.

Garnish with clotted cream or French vanilla ice cream.

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