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.

Pretty Little Summer Fruit Cakes

I took another round of pottery classes this Spring, and finally got most of the pieces I made all of those months ago back from the studio (the plates in this post). Making pottery is a good exercise for me. It is one that requires a lot of patience, which I find myself in short supply of these days. With pottery there is a lot of waiting: waiting for things to dry to trim, waiting for things to dry to fire, waiting for the bisque fire, then glazing, then the glaze fire. Then sometimes, you get to the end of all of it, after hours and hours of work, and your shit breaks at the very last moment (like the cracked green plate below). It is unavoidable and it happens to the most experienced potters. It is a craft that requires a lot of humility.

Baking comes much easier. It feels natural and simple and I can generally bake things really, really fast - very little patience required. These little summer fruit cakes are that kind of easy treat: quickly thrown together, but quite pretty and tasty. Use any small fruit you like for these cakes, my favorites of the ones pictured were the cakes with little slices of apricots and blackberries, but use whatever you have around. It is a great way to use up little bits of things you may have kicking around in the fridge.

Pretty Little Summer Fruit Cakes

makes 8-15 cakes, depending on the size of the molds

I used about 10 small brioche molds and 2 mini loaf pans here and a combination of lots of odds and ends of fruit that were left in my fridge. Any summer fruit, cut into thin slices or berry sized chunks would be great here. I don't mind the flavor of almond extract in almond cakes, but I know it is a divisive ingredient so feel free to leave it out if you aren't a fan.

6 ounces high quality butter, softened but still cool

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups assorted summer fruit (berries, halved and pitted cherries, sliced apricots, peaches or nectarines, and currants are all great options)

Preheat oven to 325 and great and flour your pans. Put the pans on a baking sheet so they will be easy to move in and out of the oven.

Sift the dry ingredients together, press on the almond meal to help it through the sifter if necessary.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth, then slowly stream in the sugar with the mixer on medium speed. Turn the mixer up to medium-high and cream the butter and sugar together until light, fluffy, and smooth. About 3 minutes.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the extracts.

Reduce the speed to low and alternately add the milk and flour mixture. Mix until just combined, being careful not to over mix. Pour the batter into the pans and top each cake with a few pieces of fruit. Bake the cakes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-40 minutes depending on the size of the pans.

Cool for 20 minutes, then remove the cakes to a rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioner's sugar and an additional berry or two just before serving.