What says summer better than luscious fresh peaches?
I decided to make a quick peach-almond tart to go with the ice cream.
Peach-Almond Tart
For pastry
1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces (2 cups) unbleached pastry flour* (not whole-wheat)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons ice water
For almond filling
:
3/4 cup sliced blanched almonds (about 2 1/2 ounces)
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
4 firm-ripe peaches
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
Make pastry:
Cut butter into bits and freeze. In a food processor pulse together flour, sugar, and salt. Add frozen butter and pulse mixture just until it resembles coarse meal. Add 4 tablespoons ice water and pulse until barely combined. Transfer dough to a bowl and stir in just enough ice water to form a ball. Flatten dough into a 6-inch disk. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
Make filling:
In food processor blend filling ingredients until very smooth. Filling may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring filling to room temperature before using.
Roll out dough.
Prick crust all over with a fork and chill 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F.Halve and pit peaches and slice thin. Spread tart crust evenly with filling, leaving about a 1/4-inch border, and arrange peach slices, overlapping slightly, over filling. Cut butter into bits. Sprinkle tart with about 2 tablespoons sugar and dot with butter. Bake tart 35 minutes, or until crust is golden and peaches are tender.
I love to find things in Italian grocery stores. I had this "instant almond pastry cream"
mix in my pantry, and so I "cheated" and used it for the almond filling (once I figured out from the Italian directions to add 5 oz. milk and an egg!).
Here is the tart before baking:
Here is the baked tart:
And here is a peach with the peach ice cream from the Perfect Scoop.
