The article - Peach Crostata - appeared first on Analida's Ethnic Spoon - Analida's Ethnic Spoon - Create easy ethnic recipes from around the world and learn about the best international cuisine.. Enjoy!
During this marvelous season of Peaches, what better dessert to make than a peach crostata. A crostata or galette is a scrumptious, rustic dessert. It’s pie dough wrapped around fresh fruit and baked to golden goodness. In my book, I consider peach crostata a “healthy” dessert, since it’s mostly fruit, right?
The beauty of this dessert, lies in its rustic character. The Japanese call it: wabi sabi. Nothing to do with wasabi! Loosely translated, wabi sabi is the beauty of things imperfect. And so it’s the rustic character of this dessert that makes it beautiful.
At this time of year, peaches are plentiful, not to mention super juicy and amazingly tasty. Although we normally associate peaches with Georgia and other southern states, they actually originated in China thousands of years ago. Peaches were a favorite foods of emperors, and consequently no one else was allowed to eat them. From China, peaches then traveled to Persia and were introduced to the Romans.
Here are the steps to create a perfect peach crostata. Step 1 place the dry dough ingredients in a food processor and pulse then add the butter and egg. Pulse to combine and it will start to look like step 2. It will them form a ball as shown in step 3. Drop this onto a floured surface as shown in step 4 and make a disk as in step 5.
Wrap the dough with plastic wrap as shown in step and refrigerate for 1 hour or you can make this a day ahead if you want to prep the dough early.
Steps 7 and 8 you place the peaches, lemon juice, cornstarch, thyme and sugar in a bold and combine. Steps 9 and 10 you combine the room temperature egg, milk and Neufchatel in a bowl and blend until smooth and then chill.
Steps 11, 12 and 13 you roll out the dough, roll up on the rolling pin and transfer to a baking sheet. Step 14 you spread the chilled cheese mixture over the dough leaving a 2 inch border.
Step 15 you add the peaches, fold up the edges and crimp the overlaps. Step 16 and 17 you brush the egg wash on the edge then sprinkle with coarse sugar. Step 18 sprinkle some brown sugar on the peaches.
Peachy tips for a great crostata
- The dough can be made in a food processor. Yes, that’s right.
- Leave a one hour cushion for your dough to chill in the fridge.
- Let your cream cheese, egg and milk come to room temperature for easy blending
- Chill the cheese mixture to thicken before spreading over the dough.
Oh, and finally, if and when you make this delicious peach crostata, don’t forget to let me know what you think. I love reading your comments. Also, make sure you share this recipe with your friends!
Peach Crostata
How I love peach season! Fresh peach crostata with a creamy Neufchatel filling. It one of my favorite farm to table desserts!
Dough
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 4 oz unsalted butter ((1 stick sliced into 1" pieces))
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 egg (beaten with 1 Tbsp water)
Peach Filling
- 4 peaches (medium sized cut into 1/2" slices)
- 2 Tbsp lemon (juiced)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp thyme (fresh)
- 4 tsp cornstarch
Cheese Filling (room temperature to prepare)
- 6 oz Neufchatel (softened*)
- 2 Tbsp milk
- 1 egg (beaten)
Finishing Touches Before Baking
- 1 egg (beaten with 1 Tbsp water (for egg wash))
- 1 Tbsp sugar (course, sprinkled on top of the egg wash)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar (sprinkled on top of the peaches)
Glaze – After Baking
- 2 Tbsp apple jelly
*Neufchatel is in essence a low fat cream cheese
- Preheat oven to 375’F.
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Prepare the peach filling: In a bowl place peaches, lemon juice, sugar, thyme, and cornstarch. Mix well and place in the refrigerator.
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Prepare the cheese filling: In a separate bowl, mix with a small hand blender the Neufchatel cheese with milk and the egg and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes until thick. (Be sure to have all of these ingredients at room temperature before combining.)
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For the dough: In a food processor place flour, salt, sugar and vinegar, pulse until combined. Add butter and beaten egg and continue to pulse until mixture forms a ball. Remove from the food processor and flatten out on a floured surface with the palm of your hand. Form a round disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour or overnight if you want to prep this step in advance.
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Roll out the dough on a floured surface to create a 12″ circle. Roll up the dough on a rolling pin and carefully transfer to a baking sheet.
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With a spatula spread chilled cheese and egg mixture around the circle leaving a 2″ border.
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Scoop peach mixture on top of the cheese egg mixture and using both hands bring up dough towards peaches crimping overlapping the dough. Also, make sure you pinch well where the dough pieces touch each other to form a crimp.
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Brush the edge of the crust with the egg wash. Sprinkle the course sugar around the edge of the egg wash where it will stick and sprinkle the peaches with brown sugar.
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Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.
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After the crostata has cooled and set, heat the apple jelly in the microwave until slightly melted and lightly brush on the peaches only. This will keep them moist and shiny looking.
- The dough can be made in a food processor. Yes, that’s right.
- Leave a one hour cushion for your dough to chill in the fridge.
- Let your cream cheese come to room temp for easy spreading.
The article - Peach Crostata - appeared first on Analida's Ethnic Spoon - Analida's Ethnic Spoon - Create easy ethnic recipes from around the world and learn about the best international cuisine.. Enjoy!
