WHITE PEACH AND WALNUT TART

SOURCE: JACQUES PÉPIN. HAPPY COOKING: MORE LIGHT CLASSICS FROM TODAY’S GOURMET.

Nature has genetically designed white peaches to lend out a rosier sweetness and a luscious flesh than their acidic yellow counterparts. Although these gifts can curse white peaches into quickly succumbing to a shrunken mush under extreme temperatures, sacrificial defiance of common sense favors the baking of lighter and healthier fruit tarts with scanty sugar additives that osmotically draw out the innate taste of the peaches and creamier fillings that omit the decadence of eggs and milk.

Ingredients

Tart Dough

2/3 cup/90 grams all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons/30 grams unsalted butter

1 tablespoon/15 mL corn oil

1/8 teaspoon/1 gram salt

1/2 teaspoon/2 grams sugar

1 tablespoon/15 mL cold water

1/4 cup/30 grams walnuts

1 tablespoon/9 grams all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon/6 grams sugar

3 ripe and unblemished white peaches, quartered

1/4 cup/80 grams apricot preserves OR homemade peach preserves

Specific Equipment

Food processor

Plastic wrap

Rolling pin

Metal flan ring with a diameter of 8 inches/20 cm

Cookie sheet

Paring knife

Pastry brush

Serves 6

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.

2. Combine flour, butter, corn oil, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process for 15 seconds or until the mixture is well-blended and looks finely ground. Pour in the water and process for 5 seconds or until the mixture gathers together to form a dough.

3. Transfer the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and gather the dough into a bowl by using the wrap to press over the dough. Cover the dough with another sheet of plastic wrap and roll the dough into a flat circle with a diameter of 10 inches/25 cm with a rolling pin.

4. Fit the dough inside the metal flan ring set over a cookie sheet, pressing the dough into place and into the sides of the ring. Trim off any excess dough from the top edge by rolling the rolling pin over and return the trimmings to the bowl of the food processor. Set the tart shell aside.

5. Add walnuts, flour, and sugar into the bowl of the food processor and process the mixture for 10 seconds or until the mixture is well-blended. Set aside

6. Sprinkle half of the walnut mixture around the bottom of the tart shell. Lay over the peach quarters in concentric circles around the tart shell, leaving a gap at the center. Cut the remaining peach quarters in half with a paring knife and fill them onto center of the tart shell. Sprinkle over the remaining half of the walnut mixture.

7. Bake the tart for 60 minutes or until the peaches and tart shell have shrunk. Remove the tart from the oven and cool for 5 to 10 minutes or until lukewarm. Glaze the peaches over with apricot preserves or peach preserves, spreading carefully with a pastry brush.

8. Remove the ring from the tart and transfer the tart carefully to a serving platter to cool completely before serving.