Honey, Lemon Myrtle Glazed Peach Tartlets + Mascarpone 

peach_tartlet

PEACHES AND CREAM IN DISGUISE.
STICKY AND SWEET, CRISPY AND CREAMY.

This is the third recipe for ‘Native November’, the month where it is all about Australian native ingredients.  These recipes are designed to encourage the use of native ingredients in a way that is a bit more user-friendly and fun than restaurant applications. With summer on its way and an abundance of stone fruit imminent, I thought I’d share a quick and simple dessert using mascarpone, peaches, honey and lemon myrtle – it’s basically fancy peaches and cream! The subtle lemony notes of the lemon myrtle work beautifully with the honey, which is then used to glaze the peaches. This dessert is deliciously sticky and sweet with buttery flaky pastry and creamy mascarpone, yum!

Servesroughly 8 mini tarts, depending on size
Cook time: 35-45 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

3 Puff pastry sheets

1 egg

2 Peaches

3 tbs Honey

1 tbs water

1 tsp dried lemon myrtle, pounded into a powder

250g Mascarpone

Icing sugar for dusting

 

METHOD

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
     
  2. Roll out the defrosted pastry on a surface dusted with icing sugar to about .5cm thick. (Many frozen pastry brands come about this thickness; if yours is then skip this step).
     
  3. Using a circular biscuit cutter, cut 16 circles roughly 10-12cms wide. Using a smaller cutter, roughly 8-10cms wide, cut out the centre of 8 of the pasty circles, to create a frame roughly 1cm wide.
     
  4. Make an egg wash. Using a fork break which the egg in a small bowl until completely broken up. Brush the egg wash over pastry, then place the frame on top or the complete circles. Using a fork, prick the bases of the tarts to prevent rising.
     
  5. Place the pastry on a tray lined with baking paper and cook for 15-20 minutes. The exact time will depend on your pastry and your oven. Your pastries should turn a beautiful golden brown and the sides/frame should have risen. Once cooked, leave to cool on wire rack.
     
  6. Make the honey syrup. Place the honey, water and half the lemon myrtle into a small pan and heat until honey and water melt together. Add more lemon myrtle if the flavour isn’t coming though, it should taste quite lemony. You can also microwave the syrup if desired. Place all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for about 30 seconds – 1 minute. Stir and adjust lemon myrtle if required.
     
  7. Meanwhile, prepare your peaches. Slice them in half and remove the pit, then cut into quarters or sixths depending on how large your peaches are. Think about how much peach you’d like to have on each tart and cut them to the appropriate size.
     
  8. Heat a grill pan to high heat. Place peaches cut side down and cook for 5 minutes, or until char lines mark the peach. Using tongs turn peaches onto the other cut surface and cook for roughly 3 minutes, or until peaches get char lines.
     
  9. Remove peaches from heat and brush with the honey and lemon myrtle syrup. Place into the preheated oven and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until peaches begin to soften. Half way through cooking, glaze the peaches again with the honey and lemon myrtle syrup.
     
  10. To serve, spoon a generous amount of mascarpone on each pastry base – if the middle has risen slightly then just use your fingers to push it down a bit. Glaze the tart edges with the honey and lemon myrtle syrup, top with a glazed peach segment, glaze the tarts once more, then dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.  

 

Notes

Lemon myrtle is available dried from most supermarkets or health food stores. If you are finding it a bit tricky to get your hands on lemon myrtle try substituting it for dried lemon verbena.