Dulce de Leche Peach Tart

Peach season is almost over here in Ontario, so I thought I would take one last kick at a peach dessert. As soon as I found this recipe, I made some dulce de leche so I could try this one out. The flavour of the tart was amazing, but my peaches were so juicy that the presentation was lacking -- a lot. While it is much easier to blanch the peaches, I highly recommend peeling them with a potato peeler. This will keep your peaches in tact, but you may also want to let them sit in a colander for awhile to get rid of the extra juices. There is no thickener in the filling, so no matter how long you leave it, it will not firm up -- trust me.

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Filling:

• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dulce de leche
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• 5-6 large ripe peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp dulce de leche
• 1 tbsp sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• To make the crust: Cream butter and sugar for a minute or two until well mixed, but still stiff.
• Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Add to the butter mixture and briefly mix with your hands until crumbly and moist enough to hold together when pressed.
• Press into an 8 or 9 inch tart pan, making sure all sides are even and strong.
• Bake for about 10 minutes or just until the sides of the crust start to brown. Remove and let cool.
• To make the filling: In a mixer or food processor add the butter, brown sugar, dulce de leche, egg yolk, vanilla and salt. Mix until light colored and smooth.
• Spread the filling into the crust.
• Put the peach slices in a colander to drain excess juices for a minute or two. (Trust me on this, you don't want super juicy peaches or the tart will be runny)
• Place the peach slices on top of the tart, overlapping each other so that they are very close together. Make circles of peach slices until the entire tart is covered. 
• Brush 2 tbsp of dulce de leche evenly over the peaches. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. sugar.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until peaches are caramel colored and the tart is heated through. Remove and let cool.
• Serve warm or at room temperature

Adapted from Back to the Cutting Board

Peach and Vanilla Bean Pie

(it was hard to take a pic with eight people watching and wondering what I was doing!)

I love vanilla. It's one of my favourite ingredients to cook with and when I saw this recipe over at Ezra Pound Cake, I was excited for the opportunity to bake with a vanilla bean. I found whole vanilla beans at a local/organic type shop (The Big Carrot in Toronto) and the smell was divine. Even the grocery clerk smelled it and I enjoyed the scent wafting from my bag all the way home.

Using the bean was easier than I thought and I simply sliced it open and scraped out the paste. I feel like I've crossed another culinary milestone by using this fresh ingredient!

The vanilla took this basic peach pie over the top and I was excited to bring it up to a friend's cottage as a "thank you." I found it a little nerve-wracking taking up a dessert I myself had never tried (it's rude to cut a slice out before bringing it, right?), but the response was an overwhelming success! Whew!

Ingredients

• 2 basic flakey pie crusts
• 1 vanilla bean
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 5 cups peeled, pitted, and thickly sliced
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape the seeds from the bean and place them in a food processor. Add the sugar and process for about a minute. (I did this with my hand mixer/immersion blender and it worked fine). 
• Take 1/2 cup of the sugar and put in another bowl and mix with cornstarch. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the peaches, sugar-cornstarch mix and lemon juice. 
• Roll the bottom layer of the pastry and place in pie plate. 
• Fill pie shell with peaches and dot the top of the fruit with butter.
• Drape top layer of pastry over filling. Cut off excess pie crust and tuck top layer over bottom layer and fold into pie plate. Flute edges with fingers and then poke steam vents in top of pie with a paring knife.
• Place the pie in the centre oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 40-45 minutes, untill pie is browning and you can hear the juices bubbling. 
• Transfer the pie to a wire rack and immediately sprinkle half the remaining vanilla sugar (about 1/4 cup) over the top.
• Let cool for at least two hours.

** have some extra vanilla sugar? Try it in your coffee!!!

Recipe adapted from Ezra Pound Cake