When I checked my email late yesterday morning I was surprised to see an email from my friends at Tumblr informing me it was the 7th anniversary of my blog, Dinner at Sheila’s! Wow…how did I let that slip by?
I told my husband I needed to create something immediately to celebrate!
On the counter sat 4 gorgeous large fresh peaches and 2 beautiful fresh nectarines which he had so carefully picked out at the Farmer’s Market Saturday morning for his weekly supply.
With some intimidation I told him I might have to use his beautiful hand picked fruit to make a peach and nectarine tart to celebrate Dinner at Sheila’s 7th anniversary.
Painful as it was for him, he cheerfully agreed, and I promised to replenish his supply. Besides, his reward would be the first slice for dessert, and fruit tarts are a favorite of his.
I had recently seen a recipe for a nectarine tart by Florence Fabricant on the New York Times Cooking Site. It looked as beautiful as I imagined it tasted, and thought I would try it sometime this summer.
Celebrating 7 years since beginning Dinner at Sheila’s I decided was reason enough to drop everything and try my hand at creating this beautiful tart.
We both agreed later last evening as we devoured a slice with a scoop of our local Doc Bernstein’s vanilla ice cream it was a delicious way to celebrate Dinner at Sheila’s.
I hope you’ll try it. I’m looking forward to sharing much more with you in the coming year! Here’s the original recipe…
Nectarine Tart (Florence Fabricant, NYT Cooking)
A beautiful dessert made from any great summer fruit-figs, apricots, plums- that, yes, takes a little time. The reward is in the wow factor you get from the result- and in the flavor it provides.
Ingredients
1 and ½ cups flour, plus more for rolling
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar, divided
11 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, divided
1 egg yolk, beaten
2 and ½ to 3 pounds fruit like peaches, nectarines, figs, apricots, plums
6 tablespoons red currant jelly, or other preserves, depending on fruit
creme fraiche, whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream, for serving
Step 1
Blend flour, salt and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl or food processor.
Dice 8 tablespoons of the butter. Use a pastry blender or two knives to blend flour mixture and butter, or pulse them together in a food processor to make a crumbly mixture.
Beat the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons cold water. Dribble it over the flour mixture, then stir or pulse slowly until the mixture starts clumping together. A bit more water may be necessary.
Gather dough is a loose ball and form into a disk on a lightly floured surface.
Step 2
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and line a 10-inch loose-bottom tart pan.
Line pastry with a sheet of foil and spread pastry weights or dry beans on top.
Bake 12 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter, cooking it on low until it turns a light nut brown.
Pit fruit (except figs) and cut in eights, or, if fruit is small, fourths.
After 12 minutes, remove foil and weights from pastry.
Return pastry to oven and continue baking until it is lightly browned, another 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove pastry from oven and increase temperature to 400 degrees.
Step 3
Brush pastry with preserves.
Arrange fruit in concentric circles, starting by placing it around the perimeter, skin side down, against the vertical sides of the pastry and standing it up as much as possible. Brush with melted butter. Dust with remaining sugar.
(Note: I also brushed a bit more jam on the fruit)
Bake about 35 to 40 minutes, until edges have browned but fruit has not collapsed.
Cool before serving with creme fraiche, whipped cream or ice cream.
