Upside-down peach tart (tarte aux pêches)

This sweet tart is perfect in summer when the peaches are ripe and delicious. With so few ingredients in this dessert, it’s important you use the best quality peaches and pastry you can find. Look for puff pastry made with butter not margarine. At home I use a 27 cm cast-iron skillet to cook the tart, but if you don’t have one exactly the same size don’t worry - just adjust the size of the pastry and the number of peaches to fit.

• serves

  6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 350 g good quality puff pastry
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 120 g caster sugar
• 1 star anise
• 4 perfectly ripe peaches, halved, stoned and each cut into 8 segments

Standing time 10 minutes

Instructions

Roll out the puff pastry until 3 mm-thick. Using a 27 cm skillet or heavy oven-proof frying pan as a guide, cut out a 27 cm circle of pastry and place on a baking paper lined tray and refrigerate until needed.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

Place the butter in the skillet with the sugar and star anise and cook over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the sugar melts and the syrup starts to become lightly golden. Carefully remove the star anise.

Arrange a neat layer of peach segments on top of the syrup in the skillet - they can overlap each other but must cover the base of the pan. Cook the peaches over low heat for 5 minutes without moving them, then remove the pan from the heat.  

Remove the pastry circle from the refrigerator and carefully place it on top of the peaches, using the back of a spoon to ease the edges of the pastry down between the peaches and the pan as if tucking in a blanket. Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden and you can see juices bubbling around the outside.  Remove from the oven and stand for 10 minutes before carefully inverting the tart onto a serving plate. 

Photography by Benito Martin. Styling by Jerrie-Joy Redman-Lloyd. Food preparation by Alice Storey. Creative concept by Lou Fay. 

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.