Look, the food blogger thing to do here is to opine on about how my childhood growing up in Georgia was filled with peach desserts because we are swimming in the damn things by August or so. All joking aside, it's mostly true: the end of summer memories *are* filled with peaches & cream style desserts, peach cobbler, fried peach pies. Arguably *the* way to serve peaches was in one-note, cloyingly sweet concoctions, so let's add a little caramelization and finesse to the party.
|
Anyone can talk about the true French origins of Tarte Tatin, of the eponymous hotel where it was pioneered - cored apples, cooked in a deep caramel and puff pastry, inverted to be a shallow tart, served in all of its glazed, caramelized glory. Let's be honest, we can, in theory, "tatin" any fruit and pastry combination, right, and not just apples?
While it seems daunting, I honestly think tarte tatin is simple because it does not need the finesse that I generally cannot be bothered to hone when I want some pastry, as it's all a goopy, caramel-rich tart that's been inverted onto its serving plate. In some senses, it IS more beginner friendly because pastry mistakes can be hidden on the bottom - in fact, you can arguably achieve this with pastry scraps because you don't need the most instagrammable worthy and smooth pastry to begin with. Shopping List (Whole Wheat Pastry):
|
|
Prep (Whole Wheat Pastry):
We're making a pretty standard pastry crust here. Not going for proper puff or rough puff...just any old pie dough will work, and it'll still be layered and flaky if we make it well enough.
Cut the solid fat into 1/2" cubes and toss into the freezer to solidify even further for at least 15 mins, ideally 30+ (remember we want extremely cold ingredients to make pastry as melted fats will interfere with the flakiness of the final product, and we're not going for a lazy shortcrust).
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and working as fast as you can, simply pinch each cube of fat into the flour to flatten it, and make sure it is well encased in flour. This is a technique that Stella Parks uses in her pie crusts, and there's no reason not to use it for its ease. There is a lot of information that have pie science slightly backwards, some claim that you are dispersing the fat throughout the flour, when (arguably pedantically) you are dispersing flour *around* the fat to fully encase it.
Using a wooden spoon, slowly stir in 20-25 g of your ice water into the mass of flour until it *just* comes together. Make sure this is again, ice cold water. Do not overwork the dough to develop unnecessary gluten, unless you like a super tough pastry. Once you can reliably pick up a ball of dough and start to cram all the straggling bits of flour into a single mass, shape it all into a puck and tightly wrap it in plastic wrap. Rest this in the fridge for 20 mins to firm up, hydrate the flour, and allow some of the gluten-disulphide bonds to dissolve again.
Using a generously floured work surface, roll the pastry out to a 10"x15" blob. It really helps to keep rotating the mass of dough to make sure you aren't sticking. Everyone tells you to make it a rectangle, but we're not looking for perfection here. Fold the North end of the dough to the center, followed by the South end. Then repeat that with the East/West. Return the dough to the fridge for another ten minutes and then repeat this step one more time. You may not get the same thickness as the first roll, but do your best.
Divide the dough into two, and wrap both. We're only using half today, so wrap/bag the remaining for another pie adventure. Place the other half into the fridge until we need it later.
Prep (Vanilla Custard):
You'll want to do this on a cold day if you're eating the tart the same day (for basically soft serve), or day before when in peak peach season (if you want firmer, cuter little quenelles).
Grab two bowls that can be inset into each other. In the smaller of the two, whisk the sugar, salt, and egg together until it is smooth and no streaks of egg remain.
In the small saucepot, heat the vanilla extract and coconut cream to 170 deg F. Go somewhat slow with this as you don't want the milk to scorch.
While that is heating, fill the larger of two bowls with crushed ice (or freshly packed snow if you're doing this in the winter). Generously sprinkle this ice with salt to lower its melting point.
Temper the egg mixture. To do this, ladle in a spoon of the hot milk into the eggs, whisking constantly - this slowly raises the egg temperature as to not curdle it and make sweet scrambled eggs. After about three spoons, you can generally go faster in the tempering process.
Immediately place the bowl of custard into the ice bath and whisk constantly to cool this mixture as fast as possible. Fast cooling of liquids leads to a smaller degree of ice crystal, leading to a smoother final ice "cream". Make sure you are scraping along the side of the bowl, as you want the convective action of heat flowing from warmer custard through the metal bowl to the ice to happen as quickly as possible. Ideally you want to get this mixture down below 40 deg F, but that MAY not be possible depending on how much ice you got or the ambient temperature. Either way...
Transfer this to your favorite ice cream churn to finish the process, or to the straight walled baking tray to set up and finish freezing. If going the manual route, scrape the mixture every 10 minutes or until it is mostly frozen, about 30-40 minutes, and then transfer to a final storage location (I suggest a clear plastic container).
The Business (Tarte Tatin):
Prep your peaches. Pit, peel, and slice them. I guess you could leave the skins on, but I know some people are weird about the fuzz. I love that shit, but that's me.
Preheat the oven to 385 deg F.
Over medium-low heat, in the straight-walled skillet, melt the butter/fats and sugar until dissolved and slightly amber in color. Do NOT stir this, and do NOT use high heat to speed up the process. This will go from caramel to burned quick. Sprinkle in the grated ginger, and then arrange the peaches into the caramel, carefully as there is hot sugar and all, but be a little artistic with it. Or don't.
There is a lot of water content to cook out of a ripe summer peach, so I suggest doing this until you are left with a sticky syrup in the bottom of the pan and the peaches have softened slightly. If you're doing this with apples, there is a sort of stiffer texture that is the end product, but with the peaches, you want them to not be like stones, you know, almost like they're called stone fruit. I have a reference image above for what that syrup looks like, and reference an image below to see how loose it starts out when the peaches start to release their moisture.
Roll the pastry into a circle that is just larger than the diameter of your pan. A little overhang is fine because you can tuck it into the bottom of the pan to make a lip of sorts when you flip the whole shebang. Carefully drape the pastry round on top of the peaches, and tuck the excess around the edge of the pan. The pastry should be in contact with the peaches, if that is unclear at all. Cut a few slits on the bottom to vent, and transfer into the oven. No need to egg wash or anything on this pastry as it'll be flipped and on the underside.
Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and flakes when pried into with a paring knife. Transfer to a trivet or back to your stovetop for 5 minutes to allow the caramel to SLIGHTLY solidify, and then CAREFULLY:
1) grab the plate
2) place it on top of the pan
3) don two heat resistant pot holders in case there is any molten sugar spillage
4) with gusto, flip the whole thing over out onto the plate. In THEORY, the mass will drop out of the pan in one swift motion, but you can rearrange any straggling peaches onto the top. They'll be a) nice and caramelized and b) have a divot in the pastry so you won't be able to tell that it fell off to begin with.
5) don't fear the pastry. It can smell fear, so just be sure to flip it in a fluid, swift motion. Don't linger on any mistakes, it's just a tatin.
Spoon out some quenelles of custard and serve immediately. This is best kept at room temperature because IMHO, the caramel solidifies too much if placed into the fridge.
Enjoy!
We're making a pretty standard pastry crust here. Not going for proper puff or rough puff...just any old pie dough will work, and it'll still be layered and flaky if we make it well enough.
Cut the solid fat into 1/2" cubes and toss into the freezer to solidify even further for at least 15 mins, ideally 30+ (remember we want extremely cold ingredients to make pastry as melted fats will interfere with the flakiness of the final product, and we're not going for a lazy shortcrust).
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and working as fast as you can, simply pinch each cube of fat into the flour to flatten it, and make sure it is well encased in flour. This is a technique that Stella Parks uses in her pie crusts, and there's no reason not to use it for its ease. There is a lot of information that have pie science slightly backwards, some claim that you are dispersing the fat throughout the flour, when (arguably pedantically) you are dispersing flour *around* the fat to fully encase it.
Using a wooden spoon, slowly stir in 20-25 g of your ice water into the mass of flour until it *just* comes together. Make sure this is again, ice cold water. Do not overwork the dough to develop unnecessary gluten, unless you like a super tough pastry. Once you can reliably pick up a ball of dough and start to cram all the straggling bits of flour into a single mass, shape it all into a puck and tightly wrap it in plastic wrap. Rest this in the fridge for 20 mins to firm up, hydrate the flour, and allow some of the gluten-disulphide bonds to dissolve again.
Using a generously floured work surface, roll the pastry out to a 10"x15" blob. It really helps to keep rotating the mass of dough to make sure you aren't sticking. Everyone tells you to make it a rectangle, but we're not looking for perfection here. Fold the North end of the dough to the center, followed by the South end. Then repeat that with the East/West. Return the dough to the fridge for another ten minutes and then repeat this step one more time. You may not get the same thickness as the first roll, but do your best.
Divide the dough into two, and wrap both. We're only using half today, so wrap/bag the remaining for another pie adventure. Place the other half into the fridge until we need it later.
Prep (Vanilla Custard):
You'll want to do this on a cold day if you're eating the tart the same day (for basically soft serve), or day before when in peak peach season (if you want firmer, cuter little quenelles).
Grab two bowls that can be inset into each other. In the smaller of the two, whisk the sugar, salt, and egg together until it is smooth and no streaks of egg remain.
In the small saucepot, heat the vanilla extract and coconut cream to 170 deg F. Go somewhat slow with this as you don't want the milk to scorch.
While that is heating, fill the larger of two bowls with crushed ice (or freshly packed snow if you're doing this in the winter). Generously sprinkle this ice with salt to lower its melting point.
Temper the egg mixture. To do this, ladle in a spoon of the hot milk into the eggs, whisking constantly - this slowly raises the egg temperature as to not curdle it and make sweet scrambled eggs. After about three spoons, you can generally go faster in the tempering process.
Immediately place the bowl of custard into the ice bath and whisk constantly to cool this mixture as fast as possible. Fast cooling of liquids leads to a smaller degree of ice crystal, leading to a smoother final ice "cream". Make sure you are scraping along the side of the bowl, as you want the convective action of heat flowing from warmer custard through the metal bowl to the ice to happen as quickly as possible. Ideally you want to get this mixture down below 40 deg F, but that MAY not be possible depending on how much ice you got or the ambient temperature. Either way...
Transfer this to your favorite ice cream churn to finish the process, or to the straight walled baking tray to set up and finish freezing. If going the manual route, scrape the mixture every 10 minutes or until it is mostly frozen, about 30-40 minutes, and then transfer to a final storage location (I suggest a clear plastic container).
The Business (Tarte Tatin):
Prep your peaches. Pit, peel, and slice them. I guess you could leave the skins on, but I know some people are weird about the fuzz. I love that shit, but that's me.
Preheat the oven to 385 deg F.
Over medium-low heat, in the straight-walled skillet, melt the butter/fats and sugar until dissolved and slightly amber in color. Do NOT stir this, and do NOT use high heat to speed up the process. This will go from caramel to burned quick. Sprinkle in the grated ginger, and then arrange the peaches into the caramel, carefully as there is hot sugar and all, but be a little artistic with it. Or don't.
There is a lot of water content to cook out of a ripe summer peach, so I suggest doing this until you are left with a sticky syrup in the bottom of the pan and the peaches have softened slightly. If you're doing this with apples, there is a sort of stiffer texture that is the end product, but with the peaches, you want them to not be like stones, you know, almost like they're called stone fruit. I have a reference image above for what that syrup looks like, and reference an image below to see how loose it starts out when the peaches start to release their moisture.
Roll the pastry into a circle that is just larger than the diameter of your pan. A little overhang is fine because you can tuck it into the bottom of the pan to make a lip of sorts when you flip the whole shebang. Carefully drape the pastry round on top of the peaches, and tuck the excess around the edge of the pan. The pastry should be in contact with the peaches, if that is unclear at all. Cut a few slits on the bottom to vent, and transfer into the oven. No need to egg wash or anything on this pastry as it'll be flipped and on the underside.
Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and flakes when pried into with a paring knife. Transfer to a trivet or back to your stovetop for 5 minutes to allow the caramel to SLIGHTLY solidify, and then CAREFULLY:
1) grab the plate
2) place it on top of the pan
3) don two heat resistant pot holders in case there is any molten sugar spillage
4) with gusto, flip the whole thing over out onto the plate. In THEORY, the mass will drop out of the pan in one swift motion, but you can rearrange any straggling peaches onto the top. They'll be a) nice and caramelized and b) have a divot in the pastry so you won't be able to tell that it fell off to begin with.
5) don't fear the pastry. It can smell fear, so just be sure to flip it in a fluid, swift motion. Don't linger on any mistakes, it's just a tatin.
Spoon out some quenelles of custard and serve immediately. This is best kept at room temperature because IMHO, the caramel solidifies too much if placed into the fridge.
Enjoy!
Cooling down the tempered custard in an ice bath. I'm mostly at the end of the process here as you can see little bits of custard freezing to the bowl.
|
Final coconut custard. The "cream" element of this kind of "peaches & cream" dessert.
|
Hey look it's a book of pastry. Cool.
|
Assembling the peaches into the pan of caramel. You can be artistic with this or just toss them in, I don't care.
|