Peach Tart.

Want to know a secret about me?  I love to bake.  I love it a lot.  I like to do it even though I'm gluten intolerant...something about it is just fun for me.  Sometime I'll show you a picture of my make-shift masks (don't want to inhale all that flour, you know).  Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to make Mike a pie because I know he loves them and I never make them despite my love for baking.  So, I headed to the farmers market with Naomi, Curt, the babes, and Peter, and sought out fresh delicious peaches to make my dream pie.  For my husband.

I really wanted to highlight the peaches--I'm not a huge fan of "pies" that are filled with syrup and goop--so I searched the web for a perfect and simple recipe to make my perfect Berkley farmers market peaches shine.

Here's how you make the goodness:

Short Crust Pastry:

1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces

1/8 to 1/4 cup (30 - 60 ml) ice water

Peach Filling:

1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) fresh ripe peaches

2-3 tablespoons (30-40 grams) granulated white sugar (I only used 1 tbs)

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

• Mix flour, salt, and sugar in a mixer until well combined.  
• Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds).  Pour 1/8 cup water in a slow, steady stream while mixing and stop with the pastry just holds together when pinched. Do not process more than about 30 seconds total!
• Gather your pastry onto your work surface, gather it into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour.
• The recipe I found called for skin to be left on the peaches.  I didn't think that would fly with Mike (though I would have liked it), so I changed things up a bit.  To strip the skin from the peaches (without losing too much flesh), you need to bring a pot of water to a boil.  Place the peaches in the boiling water for about one minute, then transfer them to ice water.  Halve the peaches and then strip the flesh by putting your knife underneath a small chunk of skin near the top and peeling back.  Then slice your peaches and set them aside in a bowl with 1/8 tsp salt and 1 tbs of sugar.
• Preheat your oven to 425*.
• Once the pastry has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and roll it out onto saran wrap.  You want it to be about 14" in diameter, so you'll need to overlap two pieces of saran wrap.  Always roll from the center out.
• When you have a circle that will not (and does not need to) be perfect, you can easily flip it over and into your pie dish.  Drop your peaches into the center of the dish, leaving about an inch between where the peaches end and the sides of the dish go up.  Then fold over the dough, overlapping and pinching where necessary.
• Your tart will look like the picture at the beginning of this post when you get to this point.  
• Sprinkle sugar over the tart to make it look pretty.
• Bake for 35-45 minutes in a 425* oven.
• Let your tart cool a bit before serving, but it tastes best warm (or so I've heard)!

I can't wait to make this again with strawberries.  And apples with a bit of cinnamon?  What do you think would happen to mangoes?  Are they good in baked form?  Hm....

*I adapted this recipe from this recipe/website.  And by adapted I mean that I did almost everything it said to, with very few variations.
*Have you ever wondered what the difference between a pie and a tart is?  I think this recipe technically makes a galette.