Serves a Crowd

Spicy Peaches and Cream Custard Tart with a Genius Crust

by:
August 21, 2011
5
1 Ratings
  • Makes 1 8" tart
Author Notes

I’ve been dying to try Paule Caillat’s pate sucree pie crust ever since Kristen published it. Straightforward, easy, last-minute-friendly—in other words, right up my alley. So when friends called (texted actually) to invite us for dinner tomorrow night, I looked at the peaches in the fruit bowl on my counter, and thought, OK, peach tart.

I adapted the crust recipe only to the extent that I increased it by about a third—I wanted to use a pie plate (which I had to turn the house upside down to find… have I mentioned that we recently moved and my new kitchen is a lot smaller than my old one?) and thought I’d need more crust. I also added a tiny bit of the spices that I used in the custard into the tart dough. Also, I had grocery store butter in the house so I decreased the water slightly, and I didn’t get any cracking. (I wish I had thought to take a picture of the just baked crust. My husband looked at it and said, wow, it looks just like the picture! As Kristen said, genius.)

The filling is adapted from an old Martha Stewart recipe for a plum and raspberry tart that was recently featured on smittenkitchen.



drbabs

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Ingredients
  • For the Crust:
  • 8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon each of ground clove, allspice and cinnamon
  • a generous pinch of kosher salt
  • flour as necessary (about 1 ¼ cups)
  • For the filling:
  • 2 large ripe fragrant peaches, scrubbed, halved and sliced into ¼ inch slices
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 3/4 cup half and half
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Directions
  1. For the Crust:
  2. Follow directions for crust as outlined here (but cut the baking time back by 5 minutes because you’re going to be baking the crust again.) : http://www.food52.com/recipes/13271_paule_caillats_brown_butter_tart_crust Let crust cool.
  1. For the filling:
  2. Reduce oven heat to 350. Lay peach slices into cooled crust. In a medium bowl, whisk together and sugar. Whisk in eggs, egg yolk, half and half, vanilla extract, salt and spices. Pour custard over fruit and place tart in oven. Bake until custard has set and is slightly golden, 45 to 55 minutes. Serve slightly warm, at room temperature or chilled.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

15 Reviews

ashleychasesdinner August 23, 2011
This looks fantastic! I love your story about this recipe, funny and informative! Love it!
drbabs August 24, 2011
Thanks!
lorigoldsby August 23, 2011
I love that the crust has spices in it!
drbabs August 23, 2011
Thanks--it's just a hint of spice.
Lizthechef August 22, 2011
Looks wonderful!
drbabs August 22, 2011
Thanks, Liz.
Sagegreen August 22, 2011
Cream custard? OMG. I am trying to start a diet this week, really!
drbabs August 22, 2011
Oh that's no fun. :)
fiveandspice August 22, 2011
Drbabs! You're making me drool.
drbabs August 22, 2011
That was the idea!
aargersi August 22, 2011
This looks great DrB - love custard pies!!!
drbabs August 22, 2011
Thanks--I hope you try it!
dymnyno August 21, 2011
I have been thinking of trying the crust. Does it shrink a lot? Your peach recipe must smell divine!!
drbabs August 22, 2011
It doesn't shrink much at all--the only thing is that next time I'll pre-bake it a little less if I'm using the cooked filling. The edges got really dark. I happen to like that but not everyone does. It does smell great, and it was amazingly easy.
drbabs August 22, 2011
I see why you asked me that from the photo. The crust really didn't shrink much--the pie pan was quite deep, and the crust was enough to make a normal-depth pie.