This dessert of fresh sweet peaches baked in a delicious butter layered homemade puff pastry tart is nothing short of amazing.
It’s literally been literally 20 years since I last made homemade puff pastry. I was going through the baking block of culinary school and had the chance to make it homemade.
I’m guessing it’s been so long since I’ve made it because I remember it being grueling for some reason. I thought it was like 2000 folds and like 10 refrigerated breaks and all this mess, but it turns out it’s a lot easier than I thought and I’m super thankful because wow is it so delicious!
How to Make Homemade Puff Pastry
While it does take a few folds and 2 trips to the refrigerator, it’s actually incredibly easy to make. Hopefully, you can tell by the video that you can absolutely make this at home.
The original recipe I have from culinary school uses a combo of bread flour and cake flour.
Bread flour is high in protein and cake flour is lower in protein.
Who needs two flours when you can just use 1 perfect 1 right?? Am I right?!
- Begin with mixing the flour and butter together in a standing mixer and letting it be well mixed, which takes about 5 to 7 minutes.
- In the meantime, you want to dissolve the salt in some cold water and then slowly pour it into the mixer until just combined. This is now your first dough chilling because the dough needs to sit in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- It’s cool though because while that’s chillin’ you can mix the butter and flour in the mixer. The best advice I can give is to get it to the consistency of the dough you just chilled. A little wet not, too hard, and not too soft.
Rolling Out the Dough
Take the dough ball out of the fridge and roll it out into a pretty big rectangle, I’d say 18 x 27 or so inches?
Oh yeah, be sure to do it on a floured surface. Super important! Next, move a few feet down and roll out the butter you just mixed on a floured surface so it’s about 2/3 the size of the dough you just rolled out, and then about an inch smaller than that.
Making the Dough Folds
Place the butter onto the left side of the rolled-out dough and then fold it like a letter. Tight to left and then left over right so that it looks like a long skinny rectangle.
Now, roll out the homemade puff pastry dough again to that original 18 x27 or so size and then fold it up like a science fair project poster board, if you remember what those look like. Fold the right and left into the center so that they meet and then fold left over right so it’s that long skinny rectangle again.
Hit this homemade puff pastry in the fridge for 20 minutes and then it’s time to slightly roll it out and from there you can make croissants, turnovers, you name it. You can actually roll it out again and do 1 more fold but you don’t have to, up to you!
Add Fresh Peaches to the Tart
I figured since I now had a beautiful piece of puff pastry that I might as well make a tasty fresh peach tart out of it. You can use sliced peaches if you want, but I want some big chunks so I took the pit out and cut them in half.
I then placed the peaches right onto the rolled out puff pastry and topped them off with a little mixture of melted butter and brown sugar, and then a little sprinkle of fresh ground cinnamon. Place the tart into the oven and go hang out for about a half-hour until it’s done!
This tart is an absolute beauty. It’s gorgeous. It looks amazing. I know I’m tooting my own, but man does it look awesome. I finished it off with some fresh berries and maimed it, no joke!
More Dessert Recipes
This is a really cool dessert and there is no doubt that you should make it, and here you can check out more dessert recipes.
- French Silk Pie Recipe
- Croissant Bread Pudding with Zabaglione Recipe
- Root Beer Float Recipe
- Ice Cream Tacos Recipe
Video
Fresh Peach Tart Recipe with Homemade Puff Pastry
Ingredients
For the Puff Pastry:
- 3 1/3 cup all-purpose flour + ½ cup
- ½ stick of softened unsalted butter + 4 sticks of cold
- 1 teaspoon of seas salt
- 1 2/3 cup of cold water
For the Tart:
- 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of milk whisked together to make an egg wash
- 6 peaches pitted and cut in half
- ½ cup of melted unsalted butter mixed with ¼ cup of light brown sugar
- fresh grated cinnamon stick
- fresh berries for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°.
- Puff Pastry: combine the 3 1/3 cup of flour with the ½ stick of butter into a standing mixer bowl with the paddle attachment and whip on low speed for 5 minutes.
- Dissolve the salt into the water and slowly pour it into the flour-butter mixture just until mixed. Chill for 20 minutes.
- Next, add the remaining butter and flour to a standing mixer bowl with the paddle attachment and whip on low speed for 5 minutes or until smooth. Do not over mix.
- Place the chilled dough onto a floured surface and roll it out until it is a long rectangle. On another part of your clean surface dusted with flour roll out the butter to 2/3 the size of the dough and then place it on the left side of the dough.
- Fold right to left and then left over right, like a letter.
- Turn 90° and roll out to the original size again. Fold the right and left to the center so that they are touching and then fold left over right. Chill for 20 minutes before rolling and folding again or ready to use.
- Cut the dough in half and freeze the other. Roll out the other dough on a cookie sheet tray lined with parchment paper until it is that size. Brush the outside 2” with the egg wash.
- Place the peaches onto the puff pastry and top off with butter and brown sugar mixture and then the cinnamon.
- Bake in the oven at 425° for 25 to 30 minutes or until the dough is crispy brown and cooked through.
- Let sit too room temperature and then garnish with optional fresh berries.
Nutrition
Mary Jo B says
This was great! I added some mascarpone (mixed with a little powdered sugar and vanilla) before putting the peaches on, (needed to use up the mascarpone), but I think I put too much on – it leaked quite a bit. It was very tasty, but soggy. I served it up with vanilla ice cream.
Thank you!
Deandse says
What if I don’t have Bob’s Red Mill AP Flour? What flours can I use to blend and what ratio? I only have regular All Purpose Flour. It’s a priced in demand commodity these pandemic days and this is all I can get.
Chef Billy Parisi says
totally fine!