Peach Tart/Galette with Rosemary and Lime

Frozen Puff Pastry Makes This a Quick and Easy Dessert.

I keep a package of Dufour Puff Pastry in my freezer all the time. While I only make my pies with homemade crust, puff pastry is a different animal. I’ve made my own on several occasions and yes, it is delicious. But Dufour Puff Pastry happens to be excellent. It’s made with all butter. Not like other brands which use oil. This is the real thing and it comes in very handy when I want to put something together quickly.

I had peaches which needed to be used and decided a puff pastry tart/galette type of thing it would be. Here’s my dilemma with puff pastry fruit tarts. I happened to be lucky enough to taste the best one (well, actually make that two) of my life while in Paris. These were individual apple tarts from Poîlane Bakery. I stood looking in the window at these little gorgeous rustic tarts, which were simple as can be, BUT the pastry and the apples were baked until they were charred on the edges and that’s where the flavor was at. I went in, bought one, and stood outside on the sidewalk gobbling it down. I went right back in, bought another one and repeated the gobbling. I’ve never tasted anything better.

I’ve tried to replicate those on numerous occasions without any luck. Simply baking the tart until it got darkly browned didn’t do the trick. It just tasted kind of burnt, not at all like the flavor I loved. Well, let’s now get to this peach tart. 

I rolled out the dough, let it chill, tossed sliced peaches with tapioca starch and minced fresh rosemary, rubbed lime zest into granulated sugar, shingled the peaches on the pastry, and topped it with the lime zest sugar. After folding the pastry over the edges and pleating it, I brushed the edges with an egg wash, sprinkled those edges with granulated sugar and put it in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes before I baked it.

I wasn’t thinking when I sprinkled it with sugar and realized too late that the sugar would melt and drip off the edges. At the end of the half hour I just decided to sprinkle more sugar on the edges and let the chips fall where they may regarding the melted sugar.

As you can see in the photo, where the sugar had melted on the edges it baked up to be deeply caramelized – almost, but not quite burnt. I was annoyed, as we all are when something like this happens. Well, I’m sure you’ve surmised where I’m going with this. Yep, when I bit into that crust I really couldn’t believe it. This is the flavor I’d experienced in Paris. And this is how it’s achieved. Let the sugar melt on the egg wash, sprinkle on more sugar and bake it. This brings puff pastry to a whole new level. It’s a tiny bit bitter, deeply flavored from the caramelization, and the perfect foil for brightly flavored apples or peaches or any other fruit that bakes up well. 

This is how I’ll be making my puff pastry tarts in the future. The lime and rosemary flavors were beautiful with the peaches and it was delightful all the way around.