Nectarine Tart Recipes

RUSTIC NECTARINE TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place folded pastry on a lightly floured work surface; roll out to a 12-by-14-inch rectangle. Trim edges to make even.
• Place pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet. With a sharp paring knife, lightly score dough to form a 1-inch border. Using a fork, prick dough inside the border every 1/2 inch. Sprinkle the border with 2 teaspoons sugar. Refrigerate until slightly firm, about 10 minutes (or up to 1 day, covered with plastic wrap).
• Bake chilled dough until puffed and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, gently toss sliced nectarines with 1 tablespoon flour, remaining 1/3 cup sugar, and salt.
• With a fork, press dough inside border to make level; arrange nectarines in rows on top (or pile nectarines on top and then spread evenly).
• Bake, loosely tented with foil, until nectarines have softened, about 10 minutes.
• Brush nectarines with warm jelly. Let cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes. To serve, cut into 8 pieces.

NECTARINE TART

Steps:

• Blend flour, salt and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl or food processor. Dice 8 tablespoons of the butter. Use a pastry blender or two knives to blend flour mixture and butter, or pulse them together in a food processor to make a crumbly mixture. Beat the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons cold water. Dribble it over the flour mixture, then stir or pulse slowly until the mixture starts clumping together. A bit more water may be necessary. Gather dough in a loose ball and form into a disk on a lightly floured surface.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and line a 10-inch loose-bottom tart pan. Line pastry with a sheet of foil and spread pastry weights or dry beans on top. Bake 12 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter, cooking it on low until it turns a light nut brown. Pit fruit (except figs) and cut in eighths or, if fruit is small, fourths. After 12 minutes, remove foil and weights from pastry. Return pastry to oven and continue baking until it is lightly browned, another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pastry from oven and increase temperature to 400 degrees.
• Brush pastry with preserves. Arrange fruit in tight concentric circles, starting by placing it around the perimeter, skin side down, against the vertical sides of the pastry and standing it up as much as possible. Brush with melted butter. Dust with remaining sugar. Bake about 35 to 40 minutes, until edges have browned but fruit has not collapsed. Cool before serving with crème fraîche.

NECTARINE TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Peel the nectarines and cut into slices. Toss with the lemon juice and a few pinches of sugar if the fruit is not too sweet. If the fruit is sweet and fresh skip the sugar. Set aside.
• Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and eggs and beat until combined.
• Spoon batter into a 10 inch pie pan (it will look like there is not enough batter but there is). Place the nectarine slices on top of the batter packing them in tightly. Sprinkle lightly with lemon juice and some sugar, depending on the sweetness of the fruit.
• Bake 50 to 60 minutes until golden brown. Cool. Refrigerate if desired. Sprinkle a bit of powdered sugar on top if desired.

NECTARINE ROSE TARTS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a muffin pan with 12 cavities with nonstick spray.
• In a medium bowl, toss the sliced nectarines, lemon juice and almond extract if using to combine. In a medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sugar and cinnamon and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the syrup over the nectarines and toss gently a few times to combine. The heat of the syrup should soften the fruit slightly.
• Using flour if necessary, roll out the puff pastry sheets to a 9-by-12-inch rectangle. Cut across the 9-inch side, cutting the dough into six pieces, each 12 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches wide.
• Arrange about 10 slices of nectarine along one of the long edges of the dough. Overlap each piece of fruit as you lay them down. Gently fold the excess dough below it up to encase the base of the fruit slices.
• Starting from one of the shorter ends, gently roll up the dough and fruit into a spiral and place it, with the skins of the fruit facing up, into the prepared muffin pan.
• Bake until the crust is deeply golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes inside the pan, then use a small offset spatula to remove the tarts to a cooling rack.
• In a small pot, heat the jam over medium heat until it is soft and fluid. Use a pastry brush to generously brush the surface of each tart.

NECTARINE ALMOND FRANGIPANE TART

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat to 375°F.
• Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and zest and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add yolks, vanilla, and water and pulse just until incorporated and dough begins to form large clumps.
• Turn dough out onto a work surface and divide into 4 portions. Smear each portion once with heel of your hand in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough together using scraper and form into a ball, then flatten into a rectangle.
• Put dough in tart pan and pat out with well-floured fingers into an even layer over bottom and up sides so it extends about 1/4 inch above rim. Chill 30 minutes.
• Lightly prick tart shell all over with a fork, then line with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake shell until golden around edge, about 15 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights and bake until shell is golden all over, about 15 minutes more. Cool shell completely in pan on a rack. Leave oven on.
• Make filling:
• Beat together almond paste, butter, sugar, and almond extract in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in flour and salt.
• Halve nectarines, discarding pits, then cut into 1/4-inch-wide wedges.
• Spread frangipane filling evenly in tart shell. Stand nectarine wedges, skin sides down, decoratively in filling, being careful not to push too far into filling.
• Bake tart until frangipane is puffed and golden and edges of nectarines are golden brown, about 1 1/4 hours.
• Make glaze:
• Heat preserves and water in a 1-quart saucepan over moderately high heat, stirring, until preserves are melted. Remove from heat and force through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl, discarding solids. Stir in Amaretto (if using).
• Brush top of hot tart generously with glaze and cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Remove side of pan and cool tart completely, about 2 hours.