Cobblers, Pies, and Tarts..oh my!

It's a beautiful Indian summer here in the mid-west and that makes for some sweet, juicy, and ripe fruits. Since I am now making pastries for a living I figured I might as well start to blog about it! I never really do a lot of baking at my house, but when I do it's always some sort of cobbler or tart. There is nothing better than a warm bubbly cobbler with a crunchy oatmeal topping or crisp fruit tart with a flaky crust.
The other day we were invited over to my dads for dinner with the family. My dad always mans the grill and one thing you always know when your headed to dads for dinner is there is going to be a grilled meat, a fresh vegetable from his garden, and of course cold Bud Lights! My dad always says not to bring anything when we come over but I always like to do my part, so I headed to the local market and when I walked into the produce area all I could smell were these beautiful ripe Nectarines! They were perfect and I decided I would make a quick French Nectarine Tart! I know it sounds fancy but it is so easy to make and so delicious it will be on your Indian Summer menu's every year!

The most work you will do making this dessert is making the tart dough. The dough is the same dough I used when I made my galette in a previous blog with one added ingredient. Since I was making a sweet not savory dish I added 1 Tbs sugar.
Here is what you need for the dough:

1 1/4 Cups Ap flour
1 Tbs Granulated sugaar
8 Tbs Cold butter cut into cubes
1 egg beaten
pinch of salt

In a food processor pulse your flour, sugar, salt, and butter until blended. On low speed add in your beaten egg and mix only until your dough almost comes together. You do not want the dough to form a big ball in the food processor and it get over mixed. Turn your dough out onto a cold work surface and bring it together with your hands. This is a very quick process, bring the dough together just enough for it to form a disc shape, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 hour.
While you are waiting for your dough to chill rinse, pit, and slice your nectarines. You want nice even slices about 1/4 of an inch thick if that.
When your dough has chilled for an hour pull it out of the fridge and roll it out into a large rectangular shape. About the shape of of your baking sheet.
Like so..

Make sure you have your flour near by to flour your work space with and your rolling pin. Once you have your dough rolled out place it atop a lined baking sheet. Again you want to work as quickly as possible with this dough. The point is to keep the butter in the dough as cold as possible so when it bakes in the oven the cold butter will disperse all throughout the dough giving it that flaky crisp texture.





After your dough is on the baking sheet line it with your nectarines....

Don't overlap your fruit. You want the look of the nice uniform lines, it just makes it look so much more fancy! Top the nectarines with 6 Tbs of cold butter cut into small cubes. Place the butter cubes all over the tart, then grab a handful of granulated sugar and sprinkle a nice layer over the entire tart.
To finish I also add some brown sugar as well.

This is what it should look like right before you place it in the oven. The butter and sugar should be distributed evenly over the entire top of the tart.
Have your oven preheated to 350 degrees.
Place the tart in the center of the rack and bake for about 25 minutes. You want the fruit to cook down and the sugars to caramelize. Don't worry if some of your edges start to look to dark, it is because of the sugars. Pull out of the oven let cool for 5 minutes and cut into squares. You can serve warm or at room temp!

 A beautiful fancy nectarine tart. Perfect for Indian Summer nights! The edges are crisp and flaky while the dough still has a tender bite to it! This dessert can be thrown together in an hour and baked before hand if needed!

Enjoy the last days of summer and Happy Eatings!!!