Peach Custard Tart with Lemon Thyme Syrup Glaze

Tarts, tarts, and more tarts! Don't you just love them? So, over the last weekend while laying awake in my bed, googling and tweeting asking for suggestions which didn't work anyways, I decided that I will be making a PEACH CUSTARD TART with LEMON THYME SYRUP GLAZE.

Light crunchy sweet pastry tart shells filled with creamy custard, then topped with fruits and glazed with flavoured syrup to give it sheen and a glossy finish. If that don't tantalize the eyes and make your mouth drool, can there be a better description? Sometimes words isn't everything. I mean, look at it? Those almost golden orbs shining; doesn't it make you want to take a knife, and slice into it?

Recently, I dreamt about tarts. Yeah, can you believe me? Not just any tarts, it had to be a tart with peaches. Looks like I have been walking, talking, and dreaming about desserts. The best part is I dreamt up the list of ingredients that I want to put into my tart. Something that I have not done before is to add a savoury herb to my dessert.

Funny thing, I dreamt that I used Lemon Thyme, and so happen I had some left over Lemon Thyme in the fridge. Is this déja vu? If you have not used a savoury herb in a dessert, it's time to challenge yourself to this. Believe me, it works and that is also because I went ahead and research a little more to understand herb pairing in desserts. For stonefruits, apparently thyme or rosemary works well with them together, if you're interested to know.

The tart has 3 key ingredients, that I worked with; lemon, lemon thyme and peaches. To work out  the custard flavour to pair with both the key ingredients, I decided to make Lemon Crème Légère, which is lemony, zing-y and zesty in flavour and slighty tart to balance off the sweetness from the peaches. Not to mention, the Lemon Crème Légère goes perfectly well complimenting the lemon thyme.

If you thought that it is one of those super sour treat, don't worry. I promise this tart will not make your face cringe. There is something extra in the Lemon Crème Légère too. Since lemon juice on its' own can be quite sour, I added sugar free apple juice and orange juice to the creamy custard filling. To finish off, I infused the sugar syrup with some fresh lemon thyme and glazed it all over my peaches. This adds a slight earthy note and aroma from the lemon thyme. Overall, I feel it's a great improvement from me, and I definitely am taking baby steps out of my comfort zone to further experiment with recipes.

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Peach Custard Tart with Lemon Thyme Glaze
by Chic & Gorgeous Treats

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*Makes a single 8 inches round tart.
*Makes 6 individual medium sized tarts.
*Non filled tart shell is best kept up to 2 days in an airtight container.
*Thaw 5-10 minutes before serving.

^INGREDIENTS

Basic Sweet Tart Shell 125g unsalted cold butter, cubed 1 cups powdered sugar, sifted 3 egg yolks 1 1/2 cups plus extra all purpose flour, sifted 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 tablespoon ice cold water Lemon Crème Légère 1 cup juice ( I used 1/2 lemon, 1 large orange and 1/4 cup apple juice) 1 tablespoon corn flour 1/2 tablespoon all purpose flour 1 large egg yolk 1/2 cup caster sugar 2/3 cup heavy cream, whipped soft peaks To Garnish 1 can peach soaked in sugar syrup, sliced 1 1/4 teaspoon lemon thyme 1/2 cup sugar syrup
DIRECTIONS 1. Using a food processor, blitz flour, powdered sugar and cold butter until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the yolks one at a time mixing after each addition until well combined. Then add the pure vanilla extract and ice cold water. Mix for another 1-2 minutes or until the dough comes together nicely. Transfer sweet pastry dough onto a cling film wrap, shaping into a disk and chill in the fridge for an hour. 2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Thaw dough for about 10-15 minutes at room temperature. On a dry surface, sprinkle some flour on your work table, and on the rolling pin. Roll the sweet pastry shell to about ¼ inch thick circle. Grease the tart pan with a little butter and sprinkle some flour. Line the tart pan with the dough, repeating the same process, if making individual tarts. Then, transfer the dough back to the fridge and chill for 30 minutes. 3. Remove tart shell from the fridge. Line it with parchment paper; fill pie shell with dried beans or pie weights. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, then remove the beans and liners and transfer back to the oven and bake for another 15 or until lightly golden brown in colour. 4. In a medium heatproof bowl, place egg yolk, sugar, plain flour and corn flour and whisk to form a thick paste.  Add the fruit juices in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. While whisking egg and flour mixture pour the juice in a stream and continue to whisk to combine. Pour the custard mixture back into the saucepan and place back over the heat and lightly whisk constantly until the mixture comes to a boil then cook a further few minutes or coats the back of a wooden spoon. This pastry cream should be very thick. Sift pastry cream through a strainer into a bowl to remove any lumps. Press a piece of cling film onto the surface and refrigerate until cool. 5. To assemble, whip heavy cream until soft peaks and fold into Lemon pastry cream. If Lemon pastry cream is slightly firm, whisk it lightly to help loosen the pastry cream. Fold in whipped cream. Pipe or spoon pastry cream filling into tart shell.  Top with sliced peach. To make Lemon Thyme glaze, take 1/2 cup of the sugar syrup from the can peach and toss in 1 1/4 teaspoon lemon thyme. Simmer in a medium deep saucepan over medium heat for around 5-1o minutes. Set aside to cool, and using a pastry brush, glaze slice peaches with the Lemon Thyme Syrup. Transfer Peach Tart back to the fridge and chill for another 1 hour. Thaw 5-10 minutes before serving. ENJOY!                                                             *basic sweet tart shell loosely adapted from Donna Hay

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Do continue to stay tune, as I have been experimenting and working hard in my test kitchen to create some sophisticated looking treats. Another side of me that I like to share and show you. Whether a success or failure, you will just have to find out at a later date. Happy mid-week y'all!

xx