Make Hay While the Sun Shines--or Something Like That!

Harvest is upon us in a big way in South Alabama and I am almost in a panic!  My theme right now is "no regrets."  I don't want to look back in November and wish I had eaten more peaches, more tomatoes, more fresh corn, more fresh anything during this happy time of year.  And living in the coastal south has meant a not-so-subtle shift in my North Georgia thinking when it comes to the bounty of summer.  It is upon us a little earlier here, before I am mentally ready and if I blink, I may miss something.

Being a member of the only CSA in Baldwin County (Bee Natural Farm) has certainly given me a leg up on the fresh / local / organic / sustainable ladder.  The good stuff comes to me weekly whether I am ready for it or can keep up with it.  Are you an I Love Lucy fan?  There are certain iconic episodes, such as the one where Lucy visits a winery and is mistaken for one of the workers and ends up stomping grapes.  And all of us of a certain age can remember the episode where Lucy and Ethel take jobs in a candy factory. The supervisor shows them how to package the candies as the conveyor belt delivers them at a quite manageable rate.  Soon, the conveyor belt picks up speed and Lucy and Ethel resort to a number of humorous methods of keeping up with the job such as stuffing the candy into their mouths.  That is certainly what I would have done!

But now the good stuff is arriving almost quicker than I can keep up.  A trip out of town or a meal out at a restaurant may mean something goes to waste, and we can't have that.  Especially, I tell you, the fresh peaches.  I will not, WILL NOT you hear me, let one of these peaches perish.  I think I made it clear last year how I feel about peaches. I offered recipes for peach cobbler and homemade peach ice cream, hallelujah, praise the Lord!  But when it comes to peaches, I am just like Forrest Gump's friend Bubba is about shrimp and I can offer you a gazillion things to do with a few fine peaches. Today I offer you a rustic peach tart.  My good friends at The Joy of Cooking want to pretty it up and give it a nice, French name, so they call it a Peach Galette.  You'll like it, whether it is rustic or prettied up.

In order to do this, I have renewed my acquaintance with the homemade pie crust.  I gave up on that relationship for a long time in lieu of the Pillsbury kind you keep in the freezer and take out at the last minute.  I have absolutely nothing against that shortcut, but I am living with a tiny little refrigerator that has a freezer about the size of the glove box in your car, if your car is an undersized compact that barely has room for your owner's manual.  Getting anything out of the freezer requires you first say a brief prayer asking mercy from your creator that something frozen and heavy not fall out and crush your toes.  Then you position one arm so it is ready in an instant to shove jumpers back up into the space. And then you go for it.  I keep frozen butter up there at all times because to me, getting caught without butter would be like forgetting to wear my skivvies, and that ain't going to happen EVER.  Especially the part about the butter.  So my kitchen is much more a "make it from scratch" place these days instead of a "keep it ready to go in the freezer" kind of kitchen.  There are a few "make it from scratch" things that I keep in the freezer after they are made, like pizza dough and tomato sauce, but now I am giving you much more information about my freezer and my skivvies than you ever wanted.  So I think I'll just tell you about my Rustic Peach Tart, or my prettied up Peach Galette, with a nod to The Joy of Cooking for their help in all things pertaining to making it from scratch.

Now we all know you can use any recipe for pie crust that suits your fancy, or you can take the Pillsbury frozen one out of your spacious built in sub-zero.  But we must be honest with ourselves and admit homemade DOES taste better, every time.  But sometimes quick wins out, and that's okay.  The way this crust folds over on the fruit, it looks rustic and homemade either way.  I have found a recipe for a "flaky" pie crust in JOC that absolutely works like a charm every time and can be whirred together in your food processor without too much work.  You do need a little advance time to let it cool down in the refrigerator (about an hour) before you roll out the dough, so be forewarned. You can put it in the freezer (your spacious sub-zero) for about 15 minutes and accomplish the same thing, but if you leave it too long, you've got a rock on your hands rather than pie dough. You can also use any fruit in this.  I've been using mostly peaches with a few waning strawberries from my refrigerator tossed in.  Blueberry season should be here about tomorrow, so I have great plans to toss peaches and blueberries in together.  I quote a lovely woman named Ursula, from whom I took cooking classes in Atlanta for many years, when I tell you, "You are the boss in the kitchen."

Rustic Peach Tart
1 recipe Flaky Pie Crust (follows)
2 cups thinly sliced peaches or other fruit
2 plus tablespoons sugar
dash cinnamon (optional)
1 tablespoon butter

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Roll out the crust until it is about 1/4 - 1/8 of an inch thin.  Cut it into a nice circle.  I use the top from my Le Creuset pot as a guide.

3.  Slide the crust onto a piece of parchment or directly onto a baking sheet.

4.  Rub a little butter over the crust.  This will help keep the fruit juices from making the crust soggy.

5.  Pile fruit into the middle of the crust, leaving a couple of inches around the perimeter.  Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar and a dash of cinnamon.  Dot evenly with the butter cut in small pieces.

6.  Fold and pleat the border of the dough over and around the fruit.  Sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of sugar over the folded crust.

7.  Bake until golden brown, around 25 - 35 minutes.  Don't worry if fruit juices bleed out a bit during cooking.  It just adds to the rustic nature of the tart.  It is also a good reason to use parchment between the tart and the baking sheet, making for much easier clean-up!  Serve with sweetened whip cream.  And if you've done everything from scratch so far, oh earth mother that you are, whip your own cream for this!

Flaky Pie Crust
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons powdered sugar (or 1 Tb. white sugar)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter (best frozen)
3 ounces cream cheese (best frozen)
2-3 tablespoons cold heavy cream

1.  In a food processor, combine the dry ingredients for 10 seconds.

2.  Cut the butter and cream cheese into 1/2 inch chunks.  Scatter over the top of the dry ingredients in the food processor.  Pulse for 1-2 second bursts until the fat is the size of peas.

3.  With the machine off, drizzle in 2 tablespoons cold heavy cream.  Pulse until the dough begins to clump into small pieces.  Try to press the dough together with your fingers; if it will not cohere, add another tablespoon of cream and pulse again.  Note: each time I make this it takes exactly 3 tablespoons of cream to get the consistency I want.

4.  Gather it out of the food processor and put it on a floured surface.  Mash it all together with your floured hands and shape it into a disc.  Cover in plastic wrap and let it cool in the refrigerator for about an hour before you work with it.