Mini Rustic Peach Tart

I am a big fan of one sitting desserts. If there is a dessert occupying space in this house it will also be occupying space in my mind...and my belly. Yes, I admit it, I have a sweet tooth. So if I can make a dessert that will serve exactly the amount of people that I need it to  without having any leftovers I'm a happy girl.

Recently on Pintrest I saw a rustic pear tart. Following the link I was brought to a recipe on Eating Well. The rustic pear tart was to serve two. Besides desserts that are small I also love desserts that are called "rustic". Rustic means there will be less dishes to wash at the end. That weekend I was going to be doing a picnic with the kids. I thought this would be the perfect dessert. So I saved the recipe.

When the weekend came around I looked over the pear tart recipe again. I decided to tweak it a bit since pears will be coming into season in September. I went with peaches, which are in peak season here right now. I love fresh fruit flavors and don't like to add a whole lot of spices because in the end it takes away from the pure fruit flavor. So I omitted the spices and just used a vanilla bean instead. What I ended up with was a...

Rustic Peach Tart

*Adapted from Eating Well's Rustic Pear Tart

(Serves 2 adults, or 1 adult and 3 kids)

Ingredients:

• 1 large ripe peach; peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp. plus 1/2 cup all purpose flour; divided
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. plus 1/4 tsp. of salt; divided
• 1 vanilla bean
• 3 Tbs. of butter; chilled
• 1 Tbs. of lard; chilled
• 2 Tbs. of ice water

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Toss the peach slices, 1 tsp. of flour, sugar, 1/8. tsp. of salt in a medium bowl. Split the vanilla bean down the middle. Using the back of a knife, scrape out the seeds and fold them in with the peaches. Set aside.
3. In another medium bowl whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup of flour with the 1/4 tsp. of remaining salt. Cut in the butter and the lard until the flour looks crumbly. Sprinkle the water in and incorporate it with a fork. You want the mixture to stay together when you press it with the fork. You may need to add a little more water.
4. On a silicone baking mat or some parchment paper dusted with flour, roll the dough out into a circle about 10 inches across. Move the silicone or parchment paper with the dough on it to the baking sheet.
5. Lay the peach slices in a spiral shape overlapping them slightly. Make sure to leave a one inch space between the peaches and the edge of the dough. Then fold the edges of the dough up over the peaches leaving an opening in the middle. Spoon any leftover juices from the bowl into the center of the peaches.
6. Bake until the tart is lightly browned and the juices are bubbling in the middle, this takes somewhere between 40 minutes - 1 hour. Allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes. I made mine ahead and served it at room temperature.

*Get a printable version of this recipe here.*

 

Lily gave it an exuberant thumbs up. Needless to say it disappeared and all I was left with was the dishes.