Squashed Peach Almond Tarts Recipes

Steps:

• To make the pastry, rub together the flour and butter until it looks like fine breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar. Add 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp water, followed by the next yolk and 1 tsp water until the dough just comes together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.
• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface until big enough to line a 23cm tart tin. If the dough rips, simply patch it up. Cut away the excess pastry. Line with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans, then bake for 10 mins. Remove paper and beans. Prick quite a few holes in the base of your tart, then bake for another 10-15 mins until biscuity.
• While the pastry cooks, make the filling. Whisk the sugar and butter together until you get a pale paste. Beat in the eggs and finally add the almonds and flour. Spoon into pastry case, arrange the peach slices across the top in a pattern and bake for 30-40 mins until golden. When cool, brush your preserve or jam across the top. Serve with a little pot of crème fraîche on the side and eat it quick before anyone else gets their hands on it!

Steps:

• Dice the butter as small as you can. If you dip your knife in the flour for the pastry and keep covering the butter with flour as you dice, you will find it easier.
• Put the diced butter and flour in the food processor and pulse until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add a pinch of salt, the sugar, egg yolks and lemon zest and pulse again - it should almost immediately adhere into a ball.Remove from the processor, lay it on a sheet of cling film or foil, and lightly press and shape into a compact log (touch it as little as possible). Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour - the longer it rests, the less it will shrink later.
• Butter and flour a 24cm tart tin thoroughly. Unwrap and cut the pastry log into thin even slices and use to cover the bottom and sides of the tin with just touching or slightly overlapping slices. Keep a bowl of ice cubes and some paper towels handy to chill and dry your hands as you work.
• Pat the pastry lightly with cold fingers so the base is even, and make the shell a little thicker round the sides, ensuring it reaches all the way up since it may shrink. To even the base, run an ice cube quickly across, from the centre to the edges. Chill again.
• Tip the almonds and 50g/2oz sugar into the food processor and whizz until finely chopped. Dice the butter and add to the almonds with the flour. Process again until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then add the egg and eg yolk and process briefly until soft and creamy. Add the crushed amaretti and briefly whizz again. Chill.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/fan 160C.Drop the peaches into a pan of boiling water, lift out after a few seconds then cool in cold water. Peel, halve and stone the peaches, sprinkle with 2 tbsp sugar and leave for 5 minutes. Spread th amaretti cream in the base of the pastry case. Put the peach halves on top, rounded side up, cutting them if necessa to fill the centre. Scatter with the almonds
• Bake for 25-35 minutes until golden. Check the filling with a toothpick (which should come out barely flecked) and ensure the pastry is shrinking away from the tin. Dust with icing sugar and serve a room temperature, with a glass of Tuscan Vin Santo.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until big enough to line a 23cm tart tin with an overhang. Line the tin with pastry, gently folding overhanging pastry down the outside of the tin, then prick all over with a fork. Line with baking parchment; sit a 20cm sandwich tin on top (it should fit snugly). Fill with baking beans, then blind-bake for 20-25 mins until the sides are set. Remove the beans, tin and paper and cook for 10-15 mins more until golden, risen and crisp. Cool a little, then trim the overhang and press down any risen bits.
• Lower the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Beat together the filling ingredients, spoon into the tin and top with the peaches. Scatter with 1 tbsp caster sugar and extra flaked almonds, then bake for 40 mins until puffed up and golden, with a slight wobble in the centre. Cool to room temperature and serve with crème fraîche.