Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Enjoying the End of Summer Fruit

Two days ago, I was tasked with making a dessert for a family member's book club.  I wanted to make a dessert that wasn't too heavy or decadent.  I knew some of the guests have dietary concerns.  I decided to avoid chocolate and decadent cream.  I decided to take advantage of the fall harvest and make a fruit tart.  I went to a local co-op market and found some beautiful New York yellow peaches.  I didn't expect to find good peaches this late in the season so I was pleasantly surprised.  I brought them home and ripened them in a brown paper bag for a few nights.  It was so hard not to eat any before I baked!  Thankfully I had a few left over.


After searching for recipes online and on pinterest, I chose a peach frangipane tart recipe from epicurious.com originating from a 1997 Gourmet issue.  I already had almond flour in the freezer for the frangipane and plently of butter and flour.  I used a Julia Child's recipe to prepare the peach and make a glaze.  Boiling the peaches and peeling them kept the beautiful rosy color on the outside of the peaches.  They looked like they still had sunset-hued skins edging the gold flesh.  I'll admit it was a pain in the neck - peeling them or leaving the skins on would have been much faster.  But I couldn't resist trying a Julia Child's tip.

I decided to go with a glaze ove butter bits to ensure the peach slices didn't dry out.  I added some apple brandy and vanill extract to the apricot preserces glaze recipe.  The peaches turned out marvelously!  The tart took longer to took than I expected but was picture-perfect and was a big hit with the guests. I was relieved there were leftovers so I could try some!  I only wish the frangipane had firmed up a bit.  I guess here's always room for improvement.  My family certainly wouldn't complain if I baked another fruit tart for them to test.

No comments:

Post a Comment