Fresh Peach Tart

This was the first time in my life that I made a fresh fruit tart with pastry cream. 
Let's see how it went....

TART SHELL:
Makes enough for an 18cm tart.
80g flour
20g almond meal
30g sugar
40g butter, softened

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add flour and almond meal.
Mix till the dough comes together.
Press the dough onto cling wrap, wrap it up, and chill it for about half hour.
Roll out the dough till large enough to cover tart pan.
Press into a greased tart pan, pressing around the edges firmly and trimming away any excess.
Chill for at least half hour.


Next, blind bake the tart shell. (This means baking the shell on its own, since it has to be pre-baked cos the filling and topping need not be baked.)


Fill the tart shell with pie weights, or beans or rice. Even coins if that's the only thing you have. Basically, anything that will weigh the shell down, so it doesn't balloon when you bake it. 


Bake at 180*C for 10-15 min or until the edges are golden brown. 
Remove pie weights and allow to cool completely.

PASTRY CREAM:
125ml milk
2 egg yolks
40g sugar
4 tsp flour
4 tsp cornflour
10g butter
1 vanilla pod or 1 tbs vanilla extract
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cinnamon (to taste)
1 tsp Cointreau (orange liqueur)

Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod.
Add to milk and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Set aside.

Whisk together egg yolks and sugar till thick and pale.
Sift in flour, cornflour and cinnamon and whisk till well combined.
Continue whisking, at the same time gradually pouring in the hot milk.
Strain the mixture back into the saucepan (to remove lumps).
Gently heat the mixture till mixture thickens, stirring constantly to prevent lumps.
When the mixture resembles custard, remove from heat and stir in the liqueur.

Transfer to a clean bowl and cover the surface of the pastry cream with cling wrap. (The cling wrap must touch the cream; this prevents a skin from forming.)
Allow to cool completely before spooning onto tart shell.

Arrange your favourite fruit onto the top of the cream, sprinkle icing sugar, and serve!

My mother-in-law passed me some fresh peaches, so I used them for this tart. And since it was fresh peaches, the colour is paler and more varied than the canned peaches we are more familiar with.  If you are using canned peaches, remember to drain the syrup. Other fruits that would be great for this tart are any berries, cherries, grapes, kiwi... well, you get it, just about any fruit you like!


In the end, I never got to sink my teeth into this tart. 
Except for the pasty cream, which I tasted cos the little black vanilla dots in the pale creamy pastry cream was just too enticing. And boy was it amazing!  Imagine, the seeds of one whole vanilla pod crammed in a modest 18cm tart shell.  Mmmmm...


You see, since the peaches were from my mother-in-law, I thought I'd make a tart for all of us. I took the tart to her in the morning on my way out, so she could have some after lunch. By the time I returned in the evening, it was all gone  :(  Well, I guess on the bright side, it must mean that it was decent tasting at the very least. 

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy as Pie (August 2011), hosted by Janine of Not the Kitchen Sink!

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