60 The Times Magazineeaches and cream is
a classic combination
and one of my son’s
favourites, so if I can
create it in any form, he
is happy. Even a drained
tin of peaches in a bowl
with a glug of cream is a
winner with him.
Colder days often push me
to making heavier bakes, but
it’s nice to balance it out with
something light every so often.
This is as simple as it gets, so we
are making our own pastry – a
kind of cheat’s rough puff. Of
course if you want you can buy
ready-made puff pastry – nothing
wrong with that – but if you want
to try your hand at something
new and get your head around
puff pastry, this is a good place
to start. You will have your own
buttery pastry made from scratch
in less than an hour.
Topped with a simple cream
cheese filling, laced with vanilla
and orange zest, and finished
with a layer of freshly sliced
peaches and a beautiful glaze of
honey, it makes a wonderful
pudding, maybe with some
clotted cream.PEACH AND
CREAM TARTS
Makes 4For the pastry- 300g plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 50g unsalted butter, softened
- 125g unsalted butter, frozen
For the filling- 150g full-fat cream cheese
- 1 egg, beaten
MARK HARRISON• 2 tbsp plain flour
Eating in
Nadiya Hussain
Cheat’s puff pastry
combines with
peaches and cream
in this easy tart
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Zest of half an orange
- 4 small peaches, halved,
stone removed and thinly
sliced (or use tinned) - 2 tbsp demerara sugar
- Honey for glazing
1 Start by making the puff pastry.
Add the flour to a bowl, with the
salt and softened butter. Rub thebutter in using your fingertips
until there are no clumps left.
2 Drizzle 4 tbsp cold water into
the flour and get your hands in.
Bring the dough together gently,
without kneading too much.
3 Lightly dust the work surface
with flour and roll out the pastry
to make a rectangle of 30 x 15cm,
with the short end closest to you.
4 Now take your butter out of
the freezer and grate half overthe bottom two thirds of the
rectangle. Press the butter in
gently. Fold over the pastry
with no butter to cover half the
buttered section. Now take the
buttered part of the dough and
fold over so you have a piece of
dough about 10 x 15cm.
5 Turn the dough by 90 degrees
and roll the rectangle back out
to a 30 x 15cm rectangle. Repeat
step 4 with the remainder of the
butter. Wrap in clingfilm and
leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6 Line a baking tray with some
baking paper. Make the filling
by mixing the cream cheese,
half the beaten egg, flour, sugar,
vanilla and orange zest into an
even paste. Have your sliced
peaches at the ready.
7 Take the dough out of the
fridge and on a lightly floured
surface roll out to a 40 x 15cm
rectangle. Cut out 4 rectangles
at 10 x 15cm each. Pop onto
the prepared tray. Using the
tip of a knife, score the pastry
to create a 1cm border around
each rectangle.
8 Prick the base of the inner
rectangle all over, using a fork.
Pop the pastry rectangles into the
freezer for 30 minutes. Preheat
the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
9 Take the pastry out of the
freezer and smother the inner
rectangle with the cream cheese
mix. Top with the slices of
peaches. Brush the edges with
the remainder of the egg and
sprinkle generously with the
demerara sugar.
10 Bake in the oven for
30 minutes. Once they are
baked, leave to cool on the tray
for 10 minutes. Glaze the fruit
with honey and serve. n‘If you want to get your head around making
puff pastry, this is a good place to start’
P
You can find all of Nadiya
Hussain’s recipes for The Times
at thetimes.co.uk