Some of the poaching liquid is reserved and mashed up with fresh raspberries to create a sauce and with that, you are all ready to assemble! What was nice about this tart was, once your pastry is baked and cooled, it doesn’t require any more oven time. Ultimately, it didn’t affect the texture and they sort of looked pretty with the peels still on, so I left them as-is. Definitely hang on to that poaching liquid when you’re done-it’s like liquid gold! The book says you should be able to easily peel your peaches once they’re poached and have fully cooled I don’t know if it’s because I’d poached mine the night before and put them in the fridge overnight while the poaching liquid was still kind of warm, or if it’s because my peaches weren’t as ripe as they could have been (remember, I HATE mushy fruit), but they were not that easy to peel. As the peaches slowly simmer away, the liquid turns into this beautiful pink colour and the smell is just amazing. The poaching liquid is mostly white wine and sugar, with some vanilla and lemon juice/rind for additional flavouring. Third component: the poached peaches! I’d picked up some fresh, in-season Niagara peaches from the grocery store the day before so the timing of making this tart couldn’t have been better here in Ontario. I used Vanilla Bean Paste, which was a slightly less expensive option that still gave me those pretty little black flecks of vanilla scattered throughout.

The next component of the tart was the Vanilla Pastry Cream, which came together really quickly stovetop with eggs, sugar, vanilla, and eventually some butter which is whisked through at the very end once your custard comes off the heat. I don’t think anything will ever be as thrilling as pulling homemade puff pastry out of the oven! I was working on this tart during a super busy almost-time-for-start-of-the-semester, meeting-filled work week, and while in preparation mode for a hectic weekend with out of town visitors and our other sister’s bridal shower thank goodness for long pastry rest times, because I was able to prep, refrigerate, and bake the pastry in between meetings and errand running.

While I was really happy with my results previous times, for whatever reason (type of butter? Temperature? Just general improvement in skill level?!) the pastry turned out sooooo much better this time. For something that seemed super intimidating when we first came up to it, I couldn’t love it more now and could probably make it without really using the book. The base of the tart is Claire’s Rough Puff, which we’d made a couple of times already-for the Apple Tart and for the Tarte Tatin. FINALLY, it was our turn to try the tart that everyone seemed to love so much. Once we started this little baking project and began following along with other Dessert People working their way through the book, I heard nothing but rave reviews of this recipe. When I tell you I’d been looking forward to making this tart since I got the book, I am not exaggerating! First off, the flavours sounded immediately appealing (peaches and raspberries are two of my very favourites!) and the photo just looked so gorgeous in the book, it popped off the page. We’re coming to you this week with our 37 th and 38 th bakes from Claire Saffitz’s Dessert Person: another Foundational Recipe checked off, the Vanilla Pastry Cream, which is used to create the grand finale of the Pies and Tarts chapter, the long-awaited Peach Melba Tart!

Peach tart recipe