Movin’ to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches.

– “Peaches” Presidents of the United States of America.

This pretty tart makes a perfect bring-along for a summer party, which is exactly what I made it for. Tomorrow is my favorite holiday, 4th of July, and I can’t wait to share this beauty. (I’m including a fun summer playlist at the end of this post as a bonus.) A crispy tart crust, a layer of Frangipane, and lovely white peaches dusted with powdered sugar – you’ll win friends and influence people with this homemade peach frangipane tart.

Frangipane

I don’t know why frangipane isn’t that common in American desserts. Its lovely almond flavor and velvety, cake-like texture make it a perfect addition to pastries and fruit tarts.

The family name Frangipane comes from frangere il pane, ‘bread breaker’ or ‘break the bread.’ Aside from being the common name for the plant Plumeria, it was also the name of an eleventh-century Roman nobleman.

So how did this family name come to be applied to the silky, delicious almond cream? One story – and certainly the most interesting – is that it is due to the work of one Marquis Muzio Frangipani, a 16th-century Italian perfumer living in Paris. His clever invention of an almond scent designed to cover the unpleasant smell of leather gloves created a craze. Somehow this got transferred to the French pastries of the time. Maybe some early cross-platform marketing? It doesn’t seem a stretch for pâtisseries to capitalize on the almond-scented-glove fad to create an almond cream and call it ‘frangipane.’ Wherever it came from, it’s delicious and I’m a fan.

The Steps

Subtitutions

• You can use a store-bought tart or pie shell if running short on time.
• You can use another stone fruit like nectarines or apricots in this tart. Or mix and match.

Reality Bakes

I had a hell of a time with the peaches, for some reason. They were either over-ripe or too firm, and I just couldn’t seem to catch them at exactly the right time. (Pro tip: Putting hard, unripe peaches in a paper bag will help them ripen faster.)

I ended up using a mix of overly firm ones and overly ripe ones and tried to layer them so some of each would be in every bite. A couple peaches were entirely unusable, though, so I had to slice the remaining ones thinner than I’d have preferred.

Since I didn’t have any rum around for the frangipane, I actually used a tablespoon of kirsch (clear cherry brandy) I had left over from making Black Forest cake. Delicious!

Print Pin

Peach Frangipane Tart

Sweet white peaches on a layer of velvety, silky frangipane make this tart something special. Summer never tasted so good.

Prep Time 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Chilling Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Author Jen Leigh

Ingredients

For the Crust:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 egg white

For the Tart Filling:

• 9 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp dark rum or brandy (optional)
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3-4 white peaches, sliced into wedges about ½ inch thick and lightly dried with paper towels
• Butter, for dotting
• Confectioners sugar, for dusting

Instructions

Crust:

• Whisk together the yolk, cream and vanilla in a small bowl.
• Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and process briefly to combine. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse to cut the butter in until the mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-sized lumps, about 8 brief pulses.
• With the processor still running, add the liquid egg mixture and process until the dough just comes together around the blade.
• Turn the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a 6-inch disk. Wrap the dough in the plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
• Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to soften slightly. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until crust is slightly larger than your tart pan, about a 14-inch round. (If too sticky, try rolling between two lightly floured large sheets of parchment or plastic wrap.)
• Carefully transfer the dough to a 10- or 11-inch tart pan. (It helps to use the rolling pin for this.) Ease the dough into the pan corners and press the dough against the fluted sides of the pan. Run the rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to remove the excess dough. Patch any thin spots or tears with the excess dough and trim away the edge again, if necessary.
• Gently pierce the bottom of the crust with the tines of a fork. Freeze the tart crust in the pan for 30 minutes.
• When ready to partially bake the crust, preheat oven to 375°F. Set the dough-lined tart pan on a baking sheet, then line the crust (bottom and sides) with foil or parchment. Fill with pie weights (rice, beans, ceramic, whatever you use) and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until foil or parchment doesn't stick to crust. Remove partially-baked shell from the oven, remove foil and pie weights and brush crust with egg white. Bake for another 5 minutes.

Tart Filling:

• Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and egg yolk one at a time, scraping down the bowl between and after additions. Add the rum/brandy (if using), and the vanilla and almond extracts and stir to combine.
• Take the bowl off the mixer and fold in the almond flour, all-purpose flour and a pinch of salt until mixture is a fairly smooth paste. Spread the frangipane in the cooled tart shell with an offset spatula.
• Layer the peach wedges on top of the frangipane in concentric circles and dot the top with butter.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the tart is golden brown across the top and the frangipane is puffed up. Cover the tart edges with foil if getting too brown. Dust with powdered sugar once tart is cool.
• Store tart at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Course Dessert

Cuisine None

Keyword frangipane, pate sucree, peach tart

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