Nectarine Tart

     My oven was already hot for dinner (I was cooking my Basic Roast Chicken  and my Orange Sage Chicken with a Honey Orange Sauce) , so might as well make dessert too! (You know I'm not going to let that heat go to waste when I can make a sweet treat.)  I had a ready-made pie crust in the fridge and some juicy nectarines, so a nectarine tart was born. Pretty quick and easy - it's a dessert that looks and tastes like it took longer to prepare than it did. I hope you find it impressive and satisfying - we did . . . . there's nothing left. lol
    I did make one change to the recipe after this post. Use CREAM instead of milk! The version I made first was good, but the custard tasted more like flan than creme brulee. (I wanted more of the latter.) I used milk originally because I was out of cream (we go through it pretty fast in my house), and I thought, "Hey it will save me some calories."  But the final texture wasn't creamy enough for me; although it didn't stop me from eating half of the tart myself. I made the changes to the recipe, but the pictures still show milk.

Here's what you'll need:

1 rolled refigerator pie crust, cornstarch, cream (not milk), sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, eggs, 3 large nectarines, apricot preserves or jam, *cinnamon, *pastry brush and a 11 inch tart pan.

- *not pictured

Start by whisking 4 oz of softened cream cheese until smooth. Add three egg yolks and whisk again.

Add 1/3 cup cornstarch, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 cups cream. and whisk until thoroughly combined.

 Don't forget about the vanilla. (and 1/8 tsp salt too)

Roll out the pie crust to fit up to the edges of your tart pan.

Slice your nectarines  -I leave the skin on. It's a lot less messy, and it's good for you. :)

Sprinkle the crust with cinnamon and arrange your nectarine slices around the tart pan until it's completely covered.



Slowly pour the custard muxture over the nectarines

 Sprinkle the top with a little more cinnamon before it goes into the oven.

Bake @ 350 for 1 hour (It bakes at the same temp as my two chickens. So, I put this in at the same time, and we had dinner and dessert with out much time or effort on my part. - Now is when I hear Anne Burrell  from the Food Network saying, "Look at me. Always thinking!")

When it omes out of the oven, take 1 Tablespoon apricot jam (or Peach, or any light colored preserve you have) . . .
and dot the top of the tart with it. The heat from the tart will melt the jam and it will be easier to brush around the top of the tart.

Then it will be pretty and shiny like this.

Let it cool completely before serving. (A couple hours in the fridge is best, but I just put mine in the freezer for 1/2 hour or so, until we were ready for it.)

Plate it with a dusting of powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream (again, I was out of cream, so we did with out. Still delicious, but the whipped cream puts it over the top!)


This picture was taken after dinner, when the sun went down. So I appologize. It's dark and not too pretty.

 Here's the recipe:

Nectarine Tart

1 prepared pie crust, rolled out to fit tart pan (mine was an 11-inch tart pan)
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup corn starch
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
3 large nectarines, washed and sliced into crescents
cinnamon
1 Tablespoon apricot jam

Whisk cream cheese until smooth. Add egg yolks and whisk to combine. Add cornstarch, sugar, cream, vanilla and salt and whisk until thoroughly combined. Place pie crust in tart pan and press it into the fluted edges. Sprinkle the crust with a little cinnamon and arrange nectarine slices around the tart. Slowly pour custard mixture over the nectarines. Top with another sprinkle of cinnamon and bake @ 350 for 1 hour. (Tart will look slightly jiggly when you take it out.) Brush the top with the apricot jam and allow to cool completely before serving.