This peach almond tart is just juicy summer peaches baked in sweet almond frangipane, wrapped up in an almond, oat, and whole wheat flour crust. I’ve included an easy swap to go gluten-free as well!
It’s Peach Season!!!!!
Peaches are one of my favorite foods. Definitely my favorite fruit. But living in the Northeast, that love comes tinged with frequent sadness when I get the not-so-occasional mealy peach. As a result, I’ve had to find recipes to use up mealy peaches. Usually this means cooking them to change their texture.
For me, finding good “cooked” peach recipes is a challenge. I don’t really like cooked peaches. So the obvious / standard answer of what to do with sub-par fruit (make pie with it!) is out. Peach pie is just all about that cooked peach flavor. Sickly sweet, very little acidity, and kind of boring in flavor?
Great, now the devil’s advocate in me is now convincing me I need to experiment with peach pie improvement options. But for now, let’s focus on this fantastic peach almond tart.
Ending Emotional Devastation by Mealy Peach
This peach almond tart came out of an attempt to find a dessert-category use for cooked peaches. But in a way that doesn’t overly rely on the cooked peach flavor.
You don’t get sickly sweet here. Because this peach tart also uses frangipane and cherries, the peach provides a nice contrast – it isn’t the star flavor all on its own. Rather, you get little bits of juicy cooked peach alongside almond and cherry flavors. It works out really nicely and you don’t get that boring overly sweet flavor that can sometimes happen with cooked peaches.
So there you have it – a delicious peach dessert even when all you have is sad mealy peaches!
Healthier Fruit Tart Crust
I also tried to make this tart a little bit healthy! Well, healthier. This tart was never going to be 100% healthy. It is a dessert, after all. I’m just aiming for healthy-er here.
To do that, I’ve substituted the all purpose flour with a combination of oat, almond, and whole wheat flours. You end up with a good crumbly crust that carries on the almond flavor. And because the wheat flour is no longer carrying the crust, it’s actually quite easy to make this gluten free. I just use a smidge of 1:1 flour from Bob’s Red Mill (see my notes in the recipe below).
I did not swap out the sugar. This recipe doesn’t actually rely on much sugar in the first place. But you need to keep some sugar in their for the sake of the crisp texture – this is not a good time to swap out sugar for maple syrup or other liquid sweeteners.
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Peach Almond Tart with Cherries
This is a perfect summer morning tart with lots of fruit (peaches and optional cherries) baked in sweet almond frangipane. The crust is entirely whole wheat, oat, and almond (with an option to go gluten-free as well).
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 min
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Ingredients
Tart Crust
1/2 cup almond flour
1/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (for gluten-free, swap with 1-to-1 flour)
2 tbsp rolled oats
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted cold butter (or use salted butter, and eliminate the salt above)
1 egg
2 tsp water
Filling
1 cup + 2 tbsp raw almonds, sliced
1 tbsp whole wheat flour (for gluten-free, swap with 1-to-1 flour)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (8tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
Fruit
2 small peaches or 1 large peach
1 cup pitted cherries (optional)
Instructions
1. Prepare the crust.
Stir together the following ingredients:
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup oat flour
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp rolled oats
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
Cut the 6 tbsp of unsalted butter into little pieces and then add to the flour mixture. Using your fingers, pinch the pieces of butter into the flour mixture until the butter pieces are the size of little peas. Then mix in:
- 1 egg yok
- 2 tsp water
Knead the mixture briefly until it forms a dough, then shape it into a flat disk. Roll out the tart dough into a thin sheet a bit bigger than your tart pan. It helps me to do this on a sheet of wax or parchment paper. Grease your tart pan (I usually just spray it with a bit of coconut or avocado oil.)
Lay the tart crust into the tart pan and gently press it into the pan. Press any pieces that come apart back together.
Note: I do not recommend skipping rolling out the dough. I tried this by just dumping the dough into my tart pan and pressing it into the tart pan with my fingers. The result was that the crust stuck to the tart pan pretty aggressively and did not want to come out after it was baked. If you don’t care too much about having your tart come out of the pan nice and pretty, it might not matter as much to you.
2. Chill for 1 hour.
I place the tart pan on a baking sheet to make sure it’s easy to move in and out of the fridge / oven when the time comes.
3. Bake for 15 minutes at 425F.
Again, recommend leaving the tart pan on a baking sheet while you bake it. Makes it much easier to move in and out of the oven without risking breaking the crust.
4. Make the frangipane.
While the crust bakes, get your food processor or blender. (I use an immersion blender with a food processor attachment – super handy!). Pulse the following ingredients together until you have a mixture that resembles coarse flour:
- 1 cup raw almonds, sliced (save the 2 tbsp of almonds to sprinkle on top of the tart right before baking)
- 1 tbsp whole wheat flour (1-to-1 flour for gluten free)
- 1/2 cup sugar
Next, add the 1/2 cup of melted, unsalted butter. Pulse until combined.
Add the 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon almond extract and pulse until you have a smooth and creamy mixture.
Huzzah! You now have frangipane.
5. Prepare your fruit.
Slice your peach(es) into 8 slices. I leave the skin on. Pit your cherries, if using.
6. Pour the frangipane into the hot, baked tart shell.
Then arrange the fruit on top of the frangipane in a single layer. Press each piece of fruit down into the frangipane. The goal is to have the fruit be touching or almost touching the bottom of the tart but still visible from the top. The frangipane will swell up a bit as it bakes.
Sprinkle the top of the tart with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sliced almonds.
7. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.
The frangipane will turn golden brown when it is finished. A fork / toothpick should come out clean. Allow the tart to cool for at least 20 minutes before you take off the outer part of the tart pan. The crust will get a bit harder as it cools making this process easier.
8. Enjoy!
Notes
Gluten Free: Substitute all references to whole wheat flour with 1-to-1 flour from Bob’s Red Mill. I haven’t tried other gluten free flour substitutes here, but any other would likely work just fine.
Missing an Ingredient? Check out my substitutions page.
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 min
- Cook Time: 40 min
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
