Summertime🌞And It’s All So Peachy!🍑
Hold on to your peaches, because it’s all about this summer fruit-tastic favorite right now. There are few things that go so beautifully together than sweet summer peaches and tangy, creamy and salty goat cheese. This Peach and Goat Cheese Tart with Rosemary and Honey is simply, and deliciously, summer on a plate.
This easy to make recipe will go from appetizer to brunch to dinner and everything in between. I don’t know about you, but anytime I put goat cheese on the menu, everyone’s happy. Rosemary is the perfect herb compliment to all the flavors in this easy to prepare tart.
Garden to Table 👩🏻🌾 Peach and Goat Cheese Tart with Rosemary and Honey
From about mid July to August, it’s hard to let a single day go by without making some dish that doesn’t features peaches. A single tree keeps us, our neighbors, my grateful chickens and every matter of critter you can imagine in peaches. I quite literally pick up buckets of them, fallen to the ground half eaten by birds and the like. I’ve watched the coyotes eat them as well. But, there are still plenty to go around.
I love cooking with things we grow. In this recipe, we grow the peaches, the rosemary and soon, the honey. With a little help from some friends, I hope to have some fresh, homemade goat cheese too, but that’s a whole other story!
Squirrels and Rosemary: Honey, It’s just not that peachy.
We have ground squirrels here, like you’ve never seen (or maybe you have!) They are adorable, but they are also very destructive. They like to nest under ground, so we have many tunnels under the house. I fear one day, our house will just be sucked under. We’ll be asleep one night, and boom, we collapse into the biggest squirrel commune ever.
One of the tricks we’ve learned is to use rosemary to deter the squirrels. Squirrels don’t like rosemary. Notice I didn’t say, hate it, but whatever we can do to make their lives a little less pleasant directly around our house, we’ll do it. So, we’ve surrounded the house with rosemary. I love the smell, we love the taste and good for us, squirrels are slightly repelled by it.
I could go on and on about how cute these little guys are. How I watch them communicate with each other and play. But, I’ve also seen them rip up expensive outdoor cushions to fill their mouths with the stuffing. Tirelessly returning, trip after trip to make their nests comfortable. Then they eat all the vegetables in my garden and……well, not so adorable anymore.
So, more rosemary!
The Savory Pastry (Makes 1 9-10 inch tart)
Preheat oven to 400° Use a 9 or 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom. (This size tart works beautifully in my toaster oven. No need to heat up the whole house to bake it!)
Into the bowl of your food processor, add 1 1/4 all-purpose flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons of very finely chopped fresh rosemary and pulse to combine. Add 8 tablespoons of ice-cold, cubed butter. Pulse about 10 times, until pebble consistence. Add 3 tablespoons of ice cold water and pulse another 3-5 times. If the mixture holds together when pinched, it’s done. If not, add a bit more water until it does.
Gather into a ball, flatten to a disc shape, then wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough out to 2 inches wider than your tart pan. Carefully lift the pastry to fit over the pan and fit it into the pan, all corners. Using your roller, roll over the top to evenly trim to fit the pan. Use a fork and dock the dough completely. Put the pastry into the refrigerator to chill until the oven is ready.
For an even easier, cleaner way to roll the dough. Just put the dough between pieces of plastic wrap, roll, then transfer to the tart pan. No muss, no fuss.
Par bake for about 15 minutes until the crust is starting to turn brown.
For the Filling – Peach and Goat Cheese Tart with Rosemary and Honey
You can keep the skin on the peaches or remove it. I don’t care for the peach skin, so I always remove it first. The easiest way to remove it is to put a pot of water on to boil. Make small X on the bottom of each peach. Drop the peach into the boiling water. Remove after about 30 seconds, then plunge into a bowl filled with ice and water. This will keep the peaches from cooking. Once cool enough to handle, the skin should just slip right off the peach with no effort.
Cut the peaches in half and discard the pits. I used about 8 peaches, because mine were fairly small. Slice the peaches into 1/4 inch thick slices,that’s about 3-4 sliced per half. Line them in the par-baked shell as you like. I set them into the tart pan in sliced halves.
Drizzle the top with about 1 tablespoon of honey and dust the top with 2 teaspoons of very finely minced fresh rosemary. Top with 4 ounces of crumbled goat cheese. Top the goat cheese with a bit more of the rosemary. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven.
Top with another drizzle of honey. Let cool to room temperature.
Enjoy!
Peach and Goat Cheese Tart with Rosemary and Honey
Notes
To remove peach skins:
You can keep the skin on the peaches or remove it. The easiest way to remove it is to put a pot of water on to boil. Make small X on the bottom of each peach. Drop the peach into the boiling water. Remove after about 30 seconds, then plunge into a bowl filled with ice and water. This will keep the peaches from cooking. Once cool enough to handle, the skin should just slip right off the peach with no effort.
Ingredients
For the Tart Pastry
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons very finely minced fresh rosemary
- 8 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 3-4 tablespoon ice water
For the Filling
- 6-8 medium sized ripe peaches
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh rosemary
- 4 ounces crumbled goat cheese
Special Equipment - 1 9 or 10 inch tart pan with removable bottom
Instructions
For the Pastry
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Into the bowl of your food processor, add 1 1/4 all-purpose flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons of very finely chopped fresh rosemary and pulse to combine.
- Add 8 tablespoons of ice-cold, cubed butter.
- Pulse about 10 times, until pebble like consistency.
- Add 3 tablespoons of ice cold water and pulse another 3-5 times.
- If the mixture holds together when pinched, it's done. If not, add a bit more water until it does.
- Gather into a ball, flatten to a disc shape, then wrap in plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough out to 2 inches wider than your tart pan.
- Carefully lift the pastry to fit over the pan and fit it into the pan, all corners.
- Using your roller, roll over the top to evenly trim to fit the pan.
- Use a fork and dock the dough completely.
- Put the pastry into the refrigerator to chill until the oven is ready.
- Par bake for about 15 minutes until the crust is starting to turn brown.
For the Filling
- Cut the peaches in half and discard the pits. Slice the peaches into 1/4 inch thick slices,that's about 3-4 sliced per half. Line them in the par-baked shell as you like. I set them into the tart pan in sliced halves.
- Drizzle the top with about 1 tablespoon of honey and dust the top with 2 teaspoons of very finely minced fresh rosemary. Top with 4 ounces of crumbled goat cheese. Top the goat cheese with a bit more of the rosemary. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven.
- Top with another drizzle of honey.
- Let cool to room temperature.
Karen Harris https://www.bittersaltysoursweet.com
