Peach Ginger Mascarpone Tart

Oh, hello again friends.

Thought I’d dropped off the face of the earth? Yeah, me too.

I ended up taking a blogging break for longer than I had intended, but sometimes life just works like that.

But, peaches! I love peaches. This year I bought a 16 lb. box again and made all sorts of things with them. Peach ice cream, peach shortbread, peach jam, peaches for breakfast, peaches for dinner… It’s now at the very end of peach season, but if you’re able to get your hands on some still, you should think about making this light and delicate dessert.

Start out by making the crust.

Take 1 sleeve of graham crackers, 1 cup of pecans, and a generous pinch of salt and grind them up finely in a food processor.

Then add 1/4 cup melted butter and pulse it in until it’s fully incorporated.

Press into a tart pan firmly, on the bottom and up the sides. Bake at 350˚ F for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool completely.

Ok, this next part I don’t have pictures for because as I was doing it, I realized I was a dork, and wasn’t using the best method. But the method I’m going to tell you about is one I’ve used in another recipe, so I know it works.

In a bowl, whisk together 8 oz. mascarpone cheese (room temp), 1/4 cup powdered sugar, and 1/4 tsp. fresh grated ginger. If your peaches are not very sweet, you could add a bit more sugar here. Even with sweet peaches, this is not an overly sweet dessert.

Note: Did you know you can freeze ginger? I buy mine fresh, peel it and then freeze it. It grates well when frozen, so I just take it out of the freezer, grate what I need and put it back. It lasts a really long time this way.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat 1 cup heavy whipping cream just until stiff. Don’t overbeat it or the final mixture will end up grainy. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture just until incorporated.

P.S.- You can use cream cheese here as well, but it has a much stronger flavor. It will still be quite tasty. But if you do that, beat the cream cheese with the sugar & ginger with your electric mixer, then add the unwhipped cream and beat until stiff peaks form.

Spread the mascarpone cream into the baked tart crust and top with sliced peaches. You can see that my mascarpone cream ended up grainy with my absentminded method. But the method above should yield smoother results. If you accidentally end up with grainy cream, don’t worry too much because you can’t really tell in the final product.

After you’ve layered the peaches on top, melt a tablespoon of seedless jelly, or strained marmalade, and brush the peaches with it. It will help keep the peaches from browning.

Look at how shiny and gorgeous those are. I love peaches. Have I mentioned that?

Chill in the refrigerator, covered in plastic wrap for up to a day. Or serve it right away. If you chill it for at least an hour it will hold up a bit better, though.

Then dive right in! This dessert is so delicate– it’s perfect for a hot day when you want something sweet but not overwhelming. But be careful… this goes down easy. Really easy. Like, eat-3-slices-before-you-know-it easy. Not that I’d know, of course. 😉