White Peach, Pecan, and Muscovado Galette

Have you seen the July issue of Bon Appetit? It has a killer photo by Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott of a luscious bluebery galette with a melty scoop of ice cream on top, a perfect July cover if you ask me. There was even a little web exclusive that explained how they chose the perfect vanilla ice cream for the cover, Breyer's Vanilla Bean if you were wondering. 

It's been a long time since I've baked anything from Bon Appetit, but that cover looked so good (and the crust looked a little unusual) so I flipped through the mag and discovered it was full of ground pecans, then later realized that the same info was on the cover too (doh!). Pun...intended. The dough came together easily, although it was very delicate to work with and tore a bit as I was moving it around my cutting board and on to the baking sheet, but good news - it patched well, and it doesn't really matter if your dough isn't perfect when you are making a galette.

Instead of the blueberries, I used a couple of super ripe white peaches and a handful of white currants I had around (the currants are totally optional, but provided a nice tart burst). The fruit was super sweet and juicy so I sprinkled the dough with about a tablespoon of flour and tablespoon of muscovado sugar, then sprinkled another tablespoon or so of sugar on top, brushed the dough with egg wash, and baked it until it was golden and juicy.

It was what I like to call an easy summer dessert situation.

White Peach, Pecan, and Muscovado Tart

adapted from Bon Appetit's July 2015 issue

The original recipe calls for bit of cinnamon in the crust (1/4 teaspoon) and a blueberry filling which I imagine is also quite delicious. I used light muscovado sugar to sweeten this tart, I like India Tree, but light brown or granulated sugar will work as well. Check out the link above for the original blueberry filling.

NOTE 9/2/2015: The original recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of water to be added to the dough, but you may need a little less. Start with 2 tablespoons, then add more bit by bit until the dough easily sticks together when squeezed. 

Crust

1/2 cup pecans

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Filling

4 medium white peaches

small handful white currants (optional)

3 tablespoons muscovado sugar, or more to taste

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

pinch salt

1/2 lemon

1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

turbinado sugar, to finish

Preheat oven to 350°. Toast pecans on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing once, until fragrant and slightly darkened, 10–15 minutes; let cool. Pulse the pecans in a food processor until they are coarse meal. Add flour, sugar, salt,  and pulse combine. Add butter and pulse until the butter is mostly worked into the dough, with a couple of pea-sized pieces remaining. 

Transfer the dough to a large bowl and drizzle with 4 tablespoons ice water (see note above) and mix gently, adding another tablespoonful of water if needed, just until mixture comes together. Gently pat dough into a 6"-diameter disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.

To assemble and bake: Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pit and slice the peaches into 1/4-inch slices. Roll the dough out to a roughly 12-inch circle, 1/8-1/4-inch thick and transfer it to the baking sheet. Sprinkle the flour and one tablespoon of the sugar over the top. Arrange the peach slices on top of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle the currants over the top, along with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. Squeeze the lemon over the top. Fold the edges of the dough over the fruit and chill the galette until the dough is firm, about 15 minutes. 

Brush the chilled dough with egg wash, sprinkle with turbinado sugar, and bake the galette until deep golden brown 30-40 minutes.

Brown Butter Blondies with Cherries, Chocolate, Cashews and Pecans

I know browning butter is old news in the culinary world, but it's definitely a trick we should all have up our sleeves. It's an easy way to elevate both sweet and savory recipes and I love using it to give cookies, crusts and bars a deep toasty flavor. For this recipe I combined it with dark brown sugar, a hefty dose of salt and a splash of bourbon because I couldn't resist. Then I packed the already rich batter full of all kinds of good stuff, but feel free to switch up the additions to your taste, just keep it to about four cups. When all was said and done these blondies were wrapped up and sent away to a good friend out West and while I was sad to see them go, I was happy they weren't parked on the counter taunting me to eat them for every meal.

Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget to pop into one of your local farmer's markets. The first strawberries and rhubarb are trickling down to New York and people are going crazy for them, myself included.

Brown Butter Blondies with Cherries, Chocolate, Cashews and Pecans

yield 9x13 pan, cut into 16-24 pieces

1 cup butter

3 cups dark brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoon bourbon (optional)

2 teaspoon salt

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup roughly chopped cashews

1 cup roughly chopped pecans

1/2 cup dried cherries

2 cups chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º and line a 9x13 baking pan with foil and grease well

1. Brown the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until all of the milk solids turn golden and the butter has a nutty fragrance being careful to not let it burn. Remove from heat and stir in the dark brown sugar, set aside to cool slightly.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, bourbon and salt. Whisk in the cooled butter, sugar mixture then fold in the flour and baking powder.

3. Stir in the nuts, cherries and chocolate, but make sure the mixture is cool enough that the chocolate won't melt. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30-35min or until the top is shiny, set and slightly cracked around the edges. Place on a wire rack to cool completely then cut into squares.