I've had this pillowy peach polenta pie recipe bookmarked for quite some time. The recipe (s) came from Natalie Paul's first cookbook, Beatrix Bakes, which I borrowed from the library then photocopied the recipe. Once peach season arrived I fished out the recipe and discovered I didn't have the recipe for the custard filling. When I copied the recipe I hadn't realised there were 4 separate elements to the recipe and I'd only copied 3 of the 4 components. In the end I decided to use a different custard filling from Natalie's second book, Beatrix Bakes Another Slice, which I whipped up in the microwave.
Although I do own a 24cm round tart tin, I just love my rectangular tin. It's so easy to cut the finished tart into neat slices but it's smaller and I have to scale the recipe down to 2/3 of all the ingredients. If you'd like to make the 24cm round tart, you'll need to roast a kilo of peaches and prepare 50% more of the polenta pastry recipe. The amount of custard should be sufficient.
Here's the recipe for you, adapted from Natalie Paull's recipe for pillowy peach and polenta pie, which makes a 10 x 35cm oblong tart. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.
Pillowy peach and polenta tart - serves 7
Citrus-roasted peaches
750g ripe peaches (approximately 6 peaches)
150g/ml orange juice (or juice from other mid-acidic citrus, such as mandarin or tangelo)
40g caster sugar
Polenta crust
160g plain flour
65g fine (or instant) yellow polenta
65g caster sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
100g unsalted butter, cold and diced
1 egg yolk (25g)
15g/ml cream
½ tsp vanilla paste
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Vanilla pastry custard
50g caster sugar
20g cornflour
pinch sea-salt flakes
40g cream
40g egg yolk (from 2 eggs)
200g/ml full-fat milk
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
To assemble
1 egg white, lightly beaten
icing sugar for dusting
Citrus-roasted peaches
Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan forced/180°C, conventional. Have ready a large non-reactive roasting tin that will hold the fruit, when halved, in a single layer.
Remove any stems and cut around the natural seam of the fruit. Twist the sides to release the halves from the stone - do this over the roasting tin to catch any juice. If the fruit shows resistance, switch to carving the lobes off with a small-serrated knife. Put the fruit in the tin.
Pour the orange juice over the fruit and scatter over the sugar. Place a piece of baking paper on top and press down lightly to meet the fruit. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes.
Peel the foil back and lift the paper carefully to avoid nasty steam burns. You are looking for the fruit to retain their shape, but for the flesh to feel yielding to the touch when squeezed lightly and for the raw appearance to diminish. If the fruit are just on the cusp of cooked when you take them from the oven, employ the resting technique; keep them covered with foil to retain the heat and leave them to rest to doneness.
Cool to warm, taking the foil off but leaving the paper on to prevent discolouration. If the skins slip off easily, peel away. If they are obstinate, leave the skins on, as removing the skin can tear the flesh away and that's too precious to lose. Store the fruit in their syrup in the fridge.
Polenta crust
Put the flour, polenta, sugar and salt in a wide mixing bowl. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until the butter lumps are the size of small peas and the flour has taken on a yellowy hue. When tossing through your fingers, it should feel like silky ground almonds with a little polenta grit interspersed with buttery lumps. These small butter lumps are going to melt during baking, creating a little steam, which will help flake the pastry apart.
Lightly combine the egg yolk, cream, vanilla and lemon zest in a small bowl, then add to the buttery flour. Keep mixing with your hands, lightly squeezing the dough together. The mix will look crumbly at first and then will come together like stiff play dough. Loosely wrap the dough in plastic wrap, then press the dough into a 2 cm thick disc, gently squeezing around the edge to smooth out any cracks. If the dough is not too warm, you can start rolling now. Or if it feels sticky, chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes - just ensure that the dough is nicely pliable before rolling.
Divide the dough into two pieces: two-thirds and one-third (280g and 140g). The larger portion is for the base of the tart and the smaller portion is for the top. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and press it out a little with the palm of your hand to ease it into the start of rolling. Roll out the dough to into a rectangle about 4-mm thick. Trim, then gently lift and flop the dough into the tin.
Working in sections, tuck the dough right into the edge and against the side of the tart tin to prevent air pockets, then roll off the excess with a rolling pin.
Add the offcuts to the smaller dough portion wrap in plastic wrap and chill until needed. The pastry can be a little pesky to roll, so ensure it isn't too warm before you start. It will happily be lightly kneaded again for a second or third attempt at rolling.
Freeze the tart shell for at least 1 hour before blind baking. Make the custard while the tart shell is chilling.
Cold start vanilla custard
Place the sugar, cornflour and salt into a medium heatproof bowl. Mix in the cream and the egg yolks and stir until well combined. Stream in the milk and vanilla bean paste and mix until smooth.
Place the bowl into a microwave oven and cook on high for 2 minutes, stirring after each minute. Cook for another 30 seconds on high, stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds. As the custard thickens it will look lumpy but just whisk hard and it will all come together into a thick paste in 30 second to a minute. Return the bowl to the microwave and cook for another 30 seconds if not quite thick enough.
Once cooked, scrape the custard into a plastic container and press a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the custard to prevent a rubbery skin forming. Chill for an hour. If, after chilling, the custard appears sloppy, it was undercooked. Simply return the custard to the microwave and cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute or until thick.
Prebake the crust
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), conventional. Cover the frozen dough with a piece of aluminium foil, tucking it snugly into the edge of the tin. Fill the lined tin with sugar or baking beads and bake for 20 minutes or until the crust has just set and there is a whisper of brown on the edges. The pie will be filled and re-baked, so the crust is only baked until pale. Cool for at least 15 minutes before filling.
Meanwhile, remove the remaining portion of dough from the fridge to soften for rolling. Get the citrus-roasted stone fruit ready. Pull the peaches out of the syrup (you will have some fruit and syrup left over, so freeze them for another baking adventure) and dry between paper towel. When the crust has cooled, smooth the vanilla pastry custard over the base using an offset spatula. Place the peaches on top, cut side down.
Roll out the dough to a rectangle large enough to cover the tart. Carefully brush a light coating of egg white on the crust edge and a little on the peaches, to encourage the top pastry to adhere. I like to roll the top pastry just before baking so it settles effortlessly over the filling and is pliable enough to seal well. You can roll it earlier and keep it chilled: just ensure it returns to a floppy state before it goes on top.
Place the pastry top over the filling
To do this, shimmy a spare tart tin base or a thin flat board under the pastry and slide the pastry into position on the peaches. Do this carefully, as the egg wash will adhere it to the top immediately. (This step didn't work for me and the pastry cracked into pieces. I cut the rectangle into 3 separate pieces and placed each third separately, overlapping each piece slightly which seemed to work out fine). Push the top pastry down to meet the cooked pastry on the side and pinch the excess off with your fingers. Use a knife to poke a few steam-release vents in a pretty pattern over the pastry top.
Bake in a 190°C (375°F) conventional oven for 45 minutes until light golden and a little puffed. You want to preserve the golden glow of the polenta, so don't over-brown. If a few cracks form on top, they will settle upon cooling. Cool the pie for at least 2 hours before dredging with icing sugar and slicing into generous wedges.
The end result - beautifully soft roast peaches, and a vanilla custard filling encased in a crunchy polenta pastry. Who could not love this combination. The pastry is a bit tricky though so I'm wondering whether I could polentarize my almond shortcrust pastry recipe, which is much easier to deal with. Watch this space.
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian
