Mascarpone and Peach Tart

8 servings

The French fruit tart is an object of beauty, with its creamy filling and lovely fresh fruit topping. The bed for the fruit is typically a layer of pastry cream on top of pastry. Here, a layer of mascarpone mixed with fromage blanc is delightfully fresh and light, perfect on a hot summer day!

Ingredients

Pâte Sablée (see page 258 of the book)

For the filling:
2/3 cup (180 ml) Fromage Blanc (see page 264), or
large-curd cottage cheese puréed very smooth
1-1/2 cups (375 ml) mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons vanilla sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste
6 small (about 1 pound 3 ounces; 540 g) ripe, very
flavorful white or yellow peaches, peeled
Fresh mint leaves

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2. Press the pastry evenly into a 9-1/2-inch (24-cm) tart pan with a removable bottom. The pastry should be about 1/8 inch (0.3 cm) thick. The pastry will extend up and over the sides of the pan; remove this and reserve to make cookies. Line the pastry with aluminum foil and weight it with pastry weights or rice or beans.

3. Bake the pastry shell in the center of the oven until the edges of the pastry are golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the pastry from the oven and remove the foil and weights, then return the pastry to the oven and bake until it is golden and baked through, an additional 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

4. If using cottage cheese, place it in a food processor and purée until it is very, very smooth. If using fromage blanc, add the mascarpone and sugar and process in a ford processor until thoroughly combined. Season to taste with nutmeg. Spread the mascarpone mixture in the cooled pastry shell and refrigerate, loosely covered, for 1 hour.

Buy the Book!

from:
Cooking at Home on Rue Tatin
by Susan Herrmann Loomis
Morrow Cookbooks
336 pages, $24.95; $34.95 (CAN), Hardcover
ISBN: 0060758171
Recipe reprinted by permission.