Of the many food memories from my childhood summers, few are as pronounced as French fruit tarts. Layered on a thin butter crust, apples, apricots, pears, or cherries, are baked and glazed into a beautifully delicate slice of summer sweetness. The glossy apricot tarts displayed in the window of the neighborhood pâtiserrie announced the end of the school year, which was cause for celebration in and of itself, but also a tell-tale sign that we were only weeks away from our annual pilgrimage back to the US, where I would indulge in peach cobblers and blueberry pies.
Just as I longed for my family’s American desserts back then, I now crave these tarts. These cravings led me to develop this recipe – a traditional French style tart with hints of American cobbler aromas and a crust inspired by my Greek family’s homemade dough. Bon Appetit!
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup water
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
For the tart toping and glaze
- 3-4 peaches*
- 2 tablespoons peach or apricot preserves
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup sugar
* Be sure to choose peaches that are ripe but still firm, as overly ripe peaches will be difficult to remove from the pit
Preparation
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees
- While the oven is heating, combine and knead together the flour, oil, water, salt, vanilla extract, and cinnamon**
- Once kneaded together, form the dough into a ball and roll out into a thin crust large enough to cover the bottom of the tart pan
** While a traditional French pie dough would call for butter, my preference is to work with oil, having become accustomed to working with olive oil. In addition, an oil based crust makes the tart suitable for vegans. The vanilla extract and cinnamon, reminiscent of peach cobblers, replenishes some of the flavor depth lost by removing the butter
- Poke the dough with a fork to prevent air bubbles from forming while is bakes
- Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 8 minutes
- While the dough is baking, wash and cut the peaches
- Using a paring knife, cut the peach in two, starting from the stem and running along the peach’s natural indentation.
- Twisting the peach, separate both halves
- Repeat the process for the peach half containing the pit
- Remove the pit and slice the peach
- Remove the tart crust from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes
- Heat the oven to 485 degrees
- Once the crust has cooled slightly, layer the peach slices in a circular pattern from the edges inward
- Sprinkle with a 1/4 cup of sugar and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until the fruit begins to bubble and brown
- While the tart is baking, combine the peach or apricot preserves with 2 tablespoons of water in a small pot to create a glaze. Remove from heat once the liquid reaches a boil
- Using a basting brush, brush the glaze over the top of the tart and let cool to room temperature
