Luscious Peach and Clove Tart

This peach tart may look sophisticated but is quite simple to make. Photos: Sriram Narayanan

There is something about the murky Bombay monsoon that many stressed out residents fail to notice.  

It is a time when luscious fruits from the Himalayan plains make their way to our markets. Between late June and August each year, fruit stalls in the city are packed with a variety of lovely fruit – soft peaches and pears with a rosy blush, tart and juicy plums, several kinds of apples, and more.

Needless to add, I have enjoyed sinking my teeth into all kinds of fruits, as far as I can remember. That is probably because fruits were always bought in season at my home, which ensured you got ripe, top quality fruit that was easy to get hooked onto. Oranges, apples and grapes from December to February; figs, purple jamuns, lychees, mangoes and watermelons from March to June; peaches, pears and plums from July to September.

I cannot get enough of the lovely peaches and pears in markets right now; and I wanted to bake with both these fruits. It is only over the last three years that I learned to incorporate these in my baking. Fruits with stronger flavours such as mangoes, pineapples and even jackfruit hold their own when chopped or pulped to be used in cakes. However, delicately flavoured fruits like peaches and apples are robbed of their aromas and turn into mush when baked for too long.

However, a tart seems perfect to showcase fresh peaches, as the pastry shell does not take too long to cook. I wanted to pair the tart’s peach filling with a spice other than cinnamon; so I leafed through The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, which is a great guide to combining flavours, and decided to add cloves to the filling.

According to Segnit, the pairing works well because peaches are one of the few fruits containing eugenol, which is the clove’s identifying flavour compound. That geeky food pairing fact aside, I found that the delicate, sweet flavour of the peaches matched nicely with the spicy notes of the cloves.

In fact, just last week, when my mother was trying out a recipe for peaches soaked in brandy from one of my favourite food writer’s (Vikram Doctor’s) column about peaches in The Economic Times, I suggested she stud each of the peach halves with a couple of cloves before soaking them in the brandy. I am hoping that really gets all the fruity-spicy flavours going by the time the peaches are ready to be eaten a few weeks later!

The peach and clove tart that I ended up baking is a simple one. Fresh, ripe peaches are key to a tasty filling that uses a bit of lime juice, soft brown sugar and cloves.

The rest is about making a basic shortcrust pastry, which takes just 20 minutes. A basic shortcrust pastry is pie dough made with a medium to high proportion of fat and very low moisture content. This composition gives the pastry its crumbly, ‘short’ texture when baked. It can be used to make a pastry shell for both sweet and savoury fillings.

Handle the dough as lightly as possible for a guaranteed crumbly pastry

Use a fork to poke holes on the pastry surface in order to stop it rising during baking

Tarts are a great way to showcase fresh seasonal fruits

The only special equipment you will need is small tart tins with removable bases; these are reasonably priced and are available at any shop stocking baking supplies (I got mine from Arife LaMoulde in Ghatkopar East).

The tart is best eaten warm with a scoop of good vanilla bean or apricot ice cream.

Peach and Clove Tart

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

125 gm flour

55 gm cold salted butter, cubed (I use Amul)

2 to 3 tablespoons cold milk

For the peach filling:

3 large ripe peaches, skinned and chopped into cubes

8 cloves, finely powdered

2 tablespoons soft brown sugar

A pinch of salt

3 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar (or lime juice)

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degree Centigrade.

Shortcrust pastry:

The secret to a perfectly crumbly pastry shell lies in its fat content and in the way it is handled. A half fat to flour ratio is usually preferred for the basic version. A golden rule of thumb when making pastry dough; it is not to be kneaded as if you are making chapatti dough! Gently rub cold cubes of butter into the flour with your thumb and fingertips, until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Then add the cold milk or water little by little and very gently pat the dough until it comes together. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Peach filling:

Toss the chopped peaches, salt, sugar, balsamic vinegar or lime juice and powdered cloves in a bowl and set aside.

Pastry shells:

Keep the dough wrapped in cling film. Now roll it out like a chapatti (to 0.5 centimetres [cm] thick) from outside the cling film to avoid the dough sticking to the rolling pin. Pick a steel bowl or cookie cutter whose diameter is 1 cm more than your tart tin.

Cut out circles using the cookie cutter/bowl and press gently into sides and bottom of each tart tin. Poke a few holes onto the base of each tart shell with a fork. This will prevent it from rising during baking. Bake these tarts in a preheated oven for around 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oven and fill them with the peach mixture. Bake again for 10-12 minutes at 180 degree Centigrade until the tarts are a golden brown. Leave to cool in the oven for a few minutes after turning off the heat.

If you cannot be bothered to get messy with the tart tins, you can just delicately roll out the pastry dough, as large as you like, to 0.5 centimetres thickness on a flour-dusted surface. Add the peach filling to the centre of the rolled dough. Lift up the sides of the pastry, and tuck and press them onto the centre until the tart is covered up. Place this on a pan/ tray covered with baking parchment paper and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 170 degree Centigrade or until golden brown.