Name: Quick and Easy Peach and Nectarine Tarte Tatin
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 tarte tatin
Cuisine: French Inspired
Ingredients: 12 peaches, or, a combination of peaches and nectarines, approximately, peeled, sliced, pit removed; 1/2 lemon, juiced; 1/2 cup granulated or brown sugar; pinch of salt; 3-4 tablespoons butter; 1 single sheet puff pastry, thawed in refrigerator, rolled and cut into circle shapes a bit larger than size of mini pie tins; flour rolling puff pastry; Equipment:; 4 mini pie tins

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Quick and Easy Peach and Nectarine Tarte Tatin

While the perfect ripeness for PYO Peaches and Nectarines still seemed about a week away upon a recent visit to Styers Orchard a few weeks back, still, we managed our way along to fill a couple of those long handled nylon re-usable bags perfect for hoisting onto the shoulder like back packs.

Inevitably, as anyone who picks their own seasonal fruits and vegetables knows when picking those softer fruits as berries, peaches and nectarines counting in time spent out on a sunny hot field before making ones way to the check out area followed by being placed into a hot car before transporting home makes one more than realize realize oops we forgot to plan out stopping at the farm store for some ice cream first.

Later on those pickings at the bottom of the bag gently tumbled onto the kitchen counter have rapidly become over softened, squashed, or at minimum, bruised.

What to do? If you have some small little pie tins and before those tiny little nats and flies seem to begin magically appearing aiming at your hard earned picks simply use them up straight away.

One fifteen minute prep idea is to immediately ready them for the evening dessert and a lovely choice, Quick and Easy Peach and Nectarine Tarte Tatin.

Simply peel and slice around a dozen over-softened or bruised peaches or a combination of peaches and nectarines into a glass bowl. Take out the big pit, of course.

Squirt in the juice of about a half of a fresh lemon sprinkle with some granulated or brown sugar and a tiny pinch of salt, stir and refrigerate. While you’re at it, defrost a single package of frozen puff pastry in the fridg and set it just beside the readied for baking fruit mixture.

I love the novel idea using puff pastry as a base for it enables creating something quite lovely even in a pinch.

If you’ve been following our Cottage Cooking Club where we monthly cook from the cookbook River Cottage veg everyday, with British Author and television cooking personality, Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, he also has a terrific dish utilizing puff pastry in the same manner using beets, yes beets. It is one of my favorite dishes in his book.

Before filling your little pie tins, roll out the sheet of puff pastry and cut circles just a bit larger than the tin size, you can refrigerate the circles on a baking sheet until you are ready to line them on top of the hot cooked fruit where the edges will later be tucked inside the tins insuring ease in tipping out of the tarte tatin once baked.

You need butter for this recipe, real butter. Please. Grease those little pie tins well with butter and just before pre-baking your peach and nectarines in the tins for around ten minutes, simply dot a small bit or two of real butter just on top of the fruit.

There are lots of uses for the other portion of remaining just picked perfectly formed peaches and nectarines, and a little more time to use them up.

As for today’s Quick and Easy Peach and Nectarine Tarte Tatin, prepared from those pickings at the bottom of the bag, gently tumbled onto the kitchen counter that have rapidly become over softened, squashed, or bruised, and must be used straight away, enjoy the juicy spoils of the day.