Peach Tart with Honey and Black Pepper

If you’ve been following my blog, then I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s gotten a major facelift. My shop and classes are growing, and I’m trying to accommodate my business with this website as well. I will still be sharing recipes here at least twice a week, so I hope you’ll continue tuning in for renditions of my favorite French foods, like this peach tart with honey and black pepper. 

I was inspired to make this peach tart after I found some incredibly beautiful peaches from my local farm stand. I brought them home and their fragrant scent was wafting through the kitchen, tempting me to bake something with them. I decided on this tart recipe that I had stumbled upon in a Bon Appetit article. The original tart utilized plums, but I decided peaches were an equally delicious stone fruit to use, especially the peaches I had on hand. I made the peach tart with my own puff pastry, which I shared how to do in last week’s post. You can see the recipe and video tutorial for that here. 

Using puff pastry to create fruit tarts is as classic as it gets when it comes to French desserts, but what I particularly love about this peach tart is the addition of fleur de sel and freshly ground black pepper. The fleur de sel creates the whole sweet and salty combination that we’ve come to know and love, while the ground pepper adds just the slightest bit of heat to the pastry. It’s not overwhelmingly noticeable like, say, red pepper or jalapeno; it adds the slightest, most subtle bit of heat, which is lovely with the sweet peaches and honey that’s drizzled on at the end. This is also an incredibly simple summer dessert to create, even if you decide to make your own pastry dough. I recommend enjoying this peach tart with a scoop of freshly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. 

Peach Tart with Honey and Black Pepper

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Ingredients

for the puff pastry

• 125 grams all-purpose flour, approx. 1 c, plus more for dusting
• 140 grams unsalted butter, approx. 1/2 c + 2 tbsp, chilled and cubed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 c to 1/2 c cold water

for the fruit topping

• 1 1/2 slices peaches, cut into 1/8” thin
• 2-3 teaspoons of granulated sugar
• pinch of sea salt flakes
• small pinch of freshly ground black pepper
• honey to drizzle

Instructions

1. Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add in the cubes of butter and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour. You want to end up with clumps of flour that are no bigger than the size of a pea. Stream in the cold water and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together into a large clump.
2. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough. Roll the dough out into a rectangular strip of dough. Fold the dough into thirds. Turn the dough so that the open ends are facing you and roll out again into a long strip. Fold into thirds. Repeat one last time, rolling the dough out into a strip, then folding into thirds. Place the dough on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Roll out the puff pastry into a 10 inch by 8inch rectangle. Place peach slices onto puff pastry, very slightly spacing them out from each other and leaving a 1/2 inch border all along the perimeter of the rectangle.
4. Sprinkle the sugar all over the tart, including the puff pastry edges. Grind a light layer of black pepper all over the tart.
5. Bake the tart for approx. 20 to 25 minutes, until the tart is golden throughout. Before serving, sprinkle a pinch of sea salt flakes all over the tart and a drizzle of honey.