This peach crostata is a simple and delicious dessert. It can be done while you are preparing the rest of your dinner. You could change the fruits with what you have available. The difference with a more classic fruit tart is in the taste of the pastry and the presentation.
You have two choices when you make it: using the fresh fruits directly as such or cooking slighlty the fruits in butter and brown sugar until half done. Both are delicious!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the pastry
- 35 g of soft butter
- 40 g of thickened cream
- 80 g of plain flour
- 1 tablespoon of caster sugar
For the fruits filling
- 2 large peaches cut into thin slices
- 1 to 2 table spoon of brown sugar (depending on how sweet the fruits already are)
- if cooking the fruits : 2 tablespoon of almond meal, 15 g butter
Method
Mix all the pastry ingredients together, form a ball. if it is too sticky add a tiny bit flour. Rest on the bench for 10-15 minutes.
Preheat oven at 180°C.
Roll the dough out on a piece of baking paper (you will cook the crostata on it) in a roundish shape 25-30 cm diameter. Place the rolled pastry on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 5 minutes. This is necessary especially on hot days as the fat content of that dough is very high and you need to be able to handle the edges. In hot days, the pastry will be very quickly too sticky and teary.
If cooking the fruits , place them in a fry-pan with the butter on medium heat. When they start cooking, turn over once being careful not to break the fruits. Add the sugar, toss around, cook for another minute or two, then remove from the heat and add the almond meal, toss gently. This is now ready to be placed on the pastry.
Take your pastry out of the fridge, place the fresh fruits or fruit mix in the middle. If you are using fresh fruits, you can dispose the pieces on a round pattern. With the cooked fruits, pour them gently in the middle. In both cases, leave a 4 cm border.
Bring back the edges towards the middle.
Bake until golden brown. Cool down completely or partly before serving. Serve with thickened cream or whipped cream if desired.
