This peach tart is a stunner of a dessert! It uses sweet shortcrust pastry (pasta frolla) as the base, is filled with delicious pastry cream and topped with fresh peaches.
I always love making beautiful desserts - and this peach tart is no exception. And the peach design on the tart? It's not hard to make at all! All it involves is thinly slicing the peaches and making this rosette pattern. I'll show you how in this blog post.
What's this tart made of?
- Sweet Italian shortcrust pastry
- Lemon and vanilla pastry cream
- Fresh peaches
- Honey
How to make this peach tart - step by step
Make the pastry cream:
Over medium heat, in a saucepan, heat up the milk, vanilla extract and lemon peel (photo 1). Do not let it boil, turn it off right before it starts boiling. Remove the lemon peel and place to the side. Do no discard.
While the milk is heating up, in a bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is white in color, silky and smooth (photo 2). Fold in the corn starch (photo 3)
Add the heated milk to the egg mixture, and with the hand mixer, blend until incorporated.
Return the mixture to the sauce pan (photo 4), along with the lemon peel, and over medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon for about 10-15 minutes until the mixture is thick (photo 5). Remove the lemon peel. Keep stirring or else the cream will stick to the bottom of the pan.
Put the cream in a bowl – sprinkle a bit of granulated sugar over top (this will keep it from forming a skin) (photo 6). Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours to let it cool.
Make the shortcrust pastry (pasta frolla):
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, gently stir together with a spoon the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
Add the butter, egg, egg yolk and lemon zest (photo 7)
Beat until, the mixture comes together and starts to form a ball (at least 2-3 minutes) (photo 8)
Place the dough on a surface and roll into a flat puck. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 1 hour (photo 9)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a couple of times to soften it (photo 10)
Keep adding flour as needed. Then roll it out to ¼ inch thick (photo 11)
Butter and flour a tart pan. Add the dough to the tart pan (photo 12) cut and remove any overhang. Prick the base of the dough with a fork (photo 13)
Cover the base of the tart with parchment paper, and weight it down with rice or baking beads (photo 14) Bake the crust for 20 minutes.
Let the crust cool completely. Remove the rice/baking beads/parchment paper (photo 15)
Assemble the tart:
Cut the peaches – halve them, remove the pit, and cut each half into slices.
Remove the pastry cream from the fridge. At this point it will be quite stiff and solid. Use the hand mixer to beat it, until it becomes silky, smooth and creamy again (photo 16)
Fill the tart with the pastry cream – smooth the top with a spatula (photo 17)
Arrange the peaches on top in a rose pattern, starting from the outside and working your way in (photo 18)
Brush the peaches with honey (photo 19)
Place the tart in the fridge until ready to serve.
Make-Ahead Tips:
- You can make the pastry cream up to two days in advance. Just keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it. Remember you'll have to whipe it when you remove it from the fridge to bring it back to its original consistency.
- You can make the shortcrust pastry up to two days in advance. Once you bake it, just store it covered at room temperature.
More Italian Tart Recipes:
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Recipe
Fresh Peach Tart With Lemon Cream Filling
Ingredients
Pastry Cream
- 5 egg yolks
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 cups whole milk
- ¼ cup + 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ lemon peel
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry (Pasta Frolla)
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- zest of one lemon
Topping
- 5 peaches medium size
- honey for brushing
Instructions
Make the Pastry Cream
- Over medium heat, in a saucepan, heat up the milk, vanilla extract and lemon peel. Do not let it boil, turn it off right before it starts boiling. Remove the lemon peel and place to the side. Do no discard.
- While the milk is heating up, in a bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is white in color, silky and smooth. Fold in the corn starch.
- Add the heated milk to the egg mixture, and with the hand mixer, blend until incorporated.
- Return the mixture to the sauce pan, along with the lemon peel, and over medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon for about 10-15 minutes until the mixture is thick. Remove the lemon peel. Keep stirring or else the cream will stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Put the cream in a bowl - sprinkle a bit of granulated sugar over top (this will keep it from forming a skin). Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours to let it cool.
Make the shortcrust pastry (pasta frolla)
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, gently stir together with a spoon the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
- Add the butter, egg, egg yolk and lemon zest. Beat until, the mixture comes together and starts to form a ball (at least 2-3 minutes).
- Place the dough on a surface and roll into a flat puck. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a couple of times to soften it. Keep adding flour as needed. Then roll it out to ¼ inch thick.
- Butter and flour a tart pan. Add the dough to the tart pan, cut and remove any overhang. Prick the base of the dough with a fork.
- Cover the base of the tart with parchment paper, and weight it down with rice or baking beads. Bake the crust for 20 minutes.
- Let the crust cool completely. Remove the rice/baking beads/parchment paper.
Assemble the tart
- Cut the peaches - halve them, remove the pit, and cut each half into slices.
- Remove the pastry cream from the fridge. At this point it will be quite stiff and solid. Use the hand mixer to beat it, until it becomes silky, smooth and creamy again. Fill the tart with the pastry cream - smooth the top with a spatula.
- Arrange the peaches on top in a rose pattern, starting from the outside and working your way in.
- Brush the peaches with honey.
- Place the tart in the fridge until ready to serve.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- You can keep this tart in the fridge for up to 3 days. I would not recommend freezing it.
- This recipe uses an 11 inch tart pan.
Cindy Boyett says
This is a beautiful and delicious tart. Every single component shines on it's own and when combined, it's perfect. The crust was so flavorful like a lemon shortbread cookie, the filling is smooth and has wonderful lemon and vanilla flavors, and lastly the freshly picked peaches made such a gorgeous rose pattern. I will be making this often while the peaches are easily found. I think other fruits like plums would be just as good.