Peach Tarte Tatin

August 17, 2015
Food,Recipes

Year after year, my mother in-law’s orchard yields the most abundant supply of peaches – and when they finally bloom, it’s become a tradition to head up north for the weekend to help harvest them. After hundreds and hundreds of fuzzy, sun-ripened peaches are picked, peach madness ensues. Dried peaches, peach crumble, peach pie, peach salsa, peach jam, peach margaritas . . . is there anything we haven’t made with this juicy stone fruit?! Peach tarte tatin, that’s what. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at the French upside-down pastry and I was delightfully surprised at how incredibly easy it was to make. Not only is it light and not too sweet, it’s a great way to show off any fruit like apples or pears.

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(images by HonestlyYUM)

PEACH TARTE TATIN

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 medium sized peaches
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 1/2 cup cognac
  • 1 whole vanilla bean
  • 4 tbs butter, cubed
  • puff pastry dough, thawed
  • a handful of all purpose flour, for dusting

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 375°
  • Roll out puff pastry dough, onto a floured surface, to about 1/4″ thick. Cut it into a circle, just bit larger than the cask iron skillet. Set aside.
  • Half the peaches and remove the seeds.
  • In the skillet, add the sugar, the cognac and split vanilla bean with the seeds scraped.
  • Dissolve the sugar over medium-high heat until the mixture becomes a light caramel. Stir with a wooden spoon until it darkens to a nice nutty brown color – and be very careful as it will be extremely hot!
  • With a pair of tongs, gently place the peaches in the skillet, half-side up.
  • After they’ve been coated, carefully flip them over with the tongs.
  • Remove from heat, add the butter and cover the peaches with the round puff pastry.
  • Tuck the excess dough into the edges with a wooden spoon.
  • Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
  • Remove from oven and very carefully invert onto a plate or cake stand.
  • Serve with large dollop of whipped cream!

Conversation

I like Gordon Ramsay’s caramel recipe of just the butter and sugar. This tends to crystallize with the addition of the room temp peaches and cold butter no matter which color…light to nutty brown you achieve. Getting that butter and sugar caramelized then adding the peach before it gets dark brown and using the cognac as a flambeau at the end gives you the flavors you want with less chance of breaking the caramel. Tried it both ways.

I made this with some modifications. It was super easy and delicious. First, I opened the bottle of cognac and realized I just wasn’t in the mood for that flavor at the time. I swapped out Madeira wine instead. I also suggest cutting both the wine and sugar in 1/2. I had way too much liquid leftover, even after letting it boil down for awhile. I ended up having to pour a bunch off the tart before serving it. However, don’t let that little blip in my experience detract you from this recipe. It really couldn’t be easier and was super tasty.

Could you make this with other than peaches ? Since peaches are out of season.

Beautiful!! What a way to celebrate peaches while we have them!

Light and not-too-sweet, all musts in dessert for me. This is stunning.

Whoa, I am totally crushing on how easy this is!! Love it!

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