Gluten Free Peach Tart with Custard

This gluten free peach tart is not your ordinary peach tart.  Each slice of fresh peach is surrounded by custard. It is truly scrumptious. Rather than using several flours and starches, this recipe only calls for one of each.

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Gluten Free Peach Tart with Custard

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Yield: Makes 6 - 8 servings.

Gluten Free Peach Tart with Custard

A gluten free peach tart recipe with a no-roll gluten-free pie crust. The combination of the custard and peaches are superb!

Ingredients:

    For the Crust:
  • 3/4 cup white rice flour
  • 1/2 cup tapioca flour
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (or guar gum, if corn intolerant.)
  • 1/2 baking soda
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cold, cut into about 10-12 pieces
  • 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, refrigerated or frozen (I froze mine for about 20-30 minutes)
  • 3 Tablespoons gluten free non-fat Greek yogurt
  • For the Filling:
  • 5 small peaches, peeled and sliced to about 1/3" thick wedges
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup gluten free non-fat Greek yogurt
  • 3/4 cup agave syrup (I ran out of regular agave and used 1/3 cup regular and the rest organic blue agave.)
  • 1/4 teaspoon organic vanilla
  • 4 Tablespoons white rice flour
  • 4 Tablespoons tapioca starch/flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum (or guar gum, if corn intolerant)
  • For the Glaze:
  • 1/2 cup natural peach preserves, without sugar, warmed (The sweetened kind will make this too sweet.)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven the 375°F.
  2. Place the dry ingredients in a bowl; whisk together.
  3. Add butter, shortening and yogurt and cut the wet ingredients in with a pastry cutter or 2 knives.
  4. Once well blended use your hands to form a ball and flatten it.
  5. Place the dough in the bottom of a 9-inch tart or quiche pan and spread with fingers all the way up the sides. I like thin crust and used a 10" tart pan.
  6. Bake for about 7 minutes, until the crust is set but not browned.
  7. Set aside to cool.
  8. Lower the temperature of the oven to 350°F.
  9. Place the sliced peaches around the edge in a circle and then fill in the center with more sliced peaches. You can layer them up to the top or just make one layer depending upon the deepness of your dish. In a 1 1/2" deep dish I added a portion of a second layer.
  10. Combine the egg yolks, Greek yogurt, agave and set aside.
  11. Whisk together flour, starch and xanthan gum; and add to wet mixture and whisk until smooth.
  12. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet.
  13. Pour the mixture over the peaches.
  14. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until the custard sets and is a light golden brown, may be darker if you used amber agave. When you giggle the pan you don't want the custard to be giggly. At about 30 minutes through the baking or whenever the crust becomes brown cover cover the edges with aluminum foil.
  15. Cool on a baking rack for at least 20 minutes.
  16. Warm peach or other orange colored (apricot, orange marmalade, etc.) preserve or jelly and spread over the top with the back of a spoon to make it shiny.
  17. Serve warm or cold.
  18. Garnish topped with whipping cream (lightly sweetened or unsweetened), if desired.

Tips

Don't be afraid to mix different starches together. You can use a combination of potato, corn and tapioca starch, or just one of them. Though I do not care for potato starch alone; mix with one other starch. It all depends upon your personal preference.

Baking soda has a bitter taste and is best used with something to counteract the taste such as buttermilk. I used Greek yogurt. When baking with baking soda do not set the dough in the refrigerator or set it aside for later baking, as baking soda begins to rise your dough upon mixing and will not last long.

You can also use baking powder instead of baking soda, but you'll need more. In using baking powder you can always use milk or a milk substitute, but you'll have to play around with the quantities: less milk than yogurt because it is watery; and about 2 - 3 times the amount of baking powder compared to baking powder.

If you wish a really flaky crust don't hesitate to substitute some of the butter for more shortening. If you are a veteran pie crust baker you probably already know that you can weigh your crust down with a pie crust weight to prevent the crust from rising, but it is a pleasure to see anything rise in gluten-free baking, therefore I let it rise, especially when starting from a 1/8" thick raw dough. If you wish to stick with the thin crust and do not have a pie crust weight you can use uncooked beans, such as white beans, etc.

The color of the custard will be determined by what type of agave and vanilla you use. Non-amber colored agave will give you more of a true custard color and using white powdered or clear liquid vanilla will also help in developing a true color.

Tart pans, also known as quiche pans, come in different varieties. You have your regular metal pan, which does not have removable sides, causing you to leave the tart in the pan while serving; you have the springform pans where you can remove the sides; and you have the porcelain dishes which you also leave the tart in the pan. With the non-springform pan you lose a bit in presentation, but if you are making this for your family you may not care. The springform pan works great, as you can show off your beautifully fluted crust! I used the latter, a safe bet, a porcelain dish: no mess; no fuss. It also makes for a nice presentation. I used a stainless pie server to scoop it out and it removed very easily without any broken crust.

This recipe takes some time to make. So, if you want to break it up you can peel and slice the peaches in advance. Just make sure you coat them with some lemon juice to prevent browning.

This recipe should not be made in advance, as it doesn't look pretty at all once refrigerated. You may want to consider adding lemon juice to the peaches before adding them to the tart, as this will prevent some browning. I could not do this, as I am allergic to citrus.

10 Replies to “Gluten Free Peach Tart with Custard”

  1. Thanks so much for this recipe! I made it today and it turned out fantastic. I used some ingredients I had on hand for the flour: Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour and Brown Rice Flour. Also, I used a fourth egg yolk to increase the liquid volume. I put everything into a tart pan from Bed Bath and Beyond with the removable bottom tray and side that comes off. My tip is to make peeling the peaches easier, which no one likes peeling a peach, is blanch them for about a minute first and drop them into an ice bath. Makes the peel come off faster and with less waste.

  2. Gosh, this looks so good. Normally I’m not much of a peach person, but the last few days I cannot get enough of them, freshly picked here. Will have to try the overflow in this tart!

  3. I am so going to make this tasty &fabulously looking pear tarte!! Waw!! Gobsmacked!

    MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM,..but I think I will substitute the white rice flour for teff flour with brown rice flour in the crust!

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