Let’s make the most of the last rays of sunshine to make an ultra-fresh dessert. This peach and lemon verbena tart has been recreated many times across the blogosphere, but the idea comes from Jeffrey Cagnes, head pastry chef at the oldest pâtisserie in Paris, Stohrer (for the moment, as he’s about to open his own pâtisserie, Casse-Noisette, and let me tell you I can’t wait!). The recipe was published in the magazine Fou de Pâtisserie, step by step, what’s more.
For those of you wondering about lemon verbena, know that it’s a variety of verbena (so there’s no lemon in the recipe) and that it’s actually fairly easy to find. I went to Truffaut (my balcony is now well stocked: lemon verbena, rosemary, mint, tarragon, basil…).
To (finally) make this tart, I scoured the web for opinions on said recipe. The peach disc is apparently known for releasing a lot of water (I didn’t have this problem) and it’s quite difficult to get the lemon verbena dosage right (20 leaves, easier said than done). I went with 5 g of lemon verbena but partway through, I was afraid the verbena flavour would be too pronounced so I didn’t leave the (blended) verbena in the cream. It’s up to you to see what you prefer.
This dessert delighted everyone in any case, it’s ultra fresh and not very sweet. So it’s a recipe I highly recommend! And if you can’t find lemon verbena, just replace it with vanilla 😉
I was lucky enough to bump into Jeffrey Cagnes on my way to the Fou de Pâtisserie shop (located right next to Stohrer). I even dared to show him a photo of my dessert and tell him that his recipe was really fantastic! We talked about the amount of verbena in this dessert (I mentioned it earlier), which in the end is perhaps the hardest thing to get right.
Ingredients & method
4 components · Full recipe
Peach jelly (can be made the day before)
Ingredients
- 400 g (14.1 oz) water
- 80 g (2.8 oz) caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
- 4 large yellow peaches
- 400 g (14.1 oz) white peach purée
- 8 g (0.3 oz) leaf gelatine
Method
1
Soak the gelatine leaves in very cold water.
2
Stone and peel the yellow peaches, then cut each into eight pieces.
3
In a saucepan, bring the water, sugar and split-and-scraped vanilla pod to the boil.
4
Add the peaches and cook over a low heat for 15–20 minutes. The peaches should be tender but not too soft.
5
Heat the white peach purée (I used white peaches that I blended myself — you will need around a kilo of peaches to make the purée), then off the heat, add the squeezed-out gelatine. Mix well.
6
Stretch a very tight layer of cling film over an 18 cm (7.1 in) pastry ring to form a base, then turn it over and arrange the poached peaches inside (you can keep the syrup in the fridge for poaching other fruit). Spread them out evenly.
7
Pour the peach purée over evenly, then freeze for at least 2 hours (do not worry if you have a little purée left over — do not overfill the ring. I found my peach disc a little thick).
Sweet shortcrust pastry
Ingredients
- 100 g (3.5 oz) butter
- 50 g (1.8 oz) icing sugar
- 200 g (7.1 oz) flour
- 2 g (0.1 oz) salt
- 40 g (1.4 oz) whole eggs
- 15 g (0.5 oz) ground almonds
- 1 whole egg for egg wash
Method
1
Place the softened butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and blend in the icing sugar, ground almonds and salt. Add the eggs and mix.
2
Add the sifted flour and knead briefly until a ball forms (do not over-work the dough).
3
Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.
4
Roll out the dough to 2–3 mm thick with a rolling pin. Lightly prick the dough with a fork and cut a circle slightly larger than your ring.
5
Place the dough in a 22 cm (8.7 in) ring (the fork holes end up on the underside).
6
A few tips for lining a tart ring well: bring the dough inward around the ring and use your index finger to press a right angle all the way around. Form a slight ridge on the inside, run the rolling pin across the top to trim the excess, and form a neat raised edge by pinching the dough (see video for instructions). Trim any surplus dough with a small knife and refrigerate while the oven heats up.
7
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F.
8
Line the tart base with baking paper and fill with ceramic baking beads or dried pulses, then bake for approximately 30 minutes. Halfway through, brush the inside and outside of the pastry with beaten egg using a pastry brush (I do the inside only).
9
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
10
Once the tart case is baked and cooled, use a Microplane grater to smooth out any imperfections.
Lemon verbena diplomat cream
Ingredients
- 250 g (8.8 oz) semi-skimmed milk
- 50 g (1.8 oz) sugar
- 40 g (1.4 oz) egg yolks
- 25 g (0.9 oz) cornflour
- 20 g (0.7 oz) butter
- 200 g (7.1 oz) full-fat cream
- 4 g (0.1 oz) leaf gelatine
- 20 lemon verbena leaves (I used approximately 5 g (0.2 oz))
Method
1
Soak the gelatine leaves in very cold water.
2
Infuse the lemon verbena leaves in the milk for approximately 15 minutes.
3
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture turns pale.
4
Add the cornflour and mix.
5
Using a blender or stick blender, blend the milk with the verbena leaves (I did not do this — I preferred to remove the verbena. If you want a more pronounced verbena flavour, I recommend this step).
6
Pour three quarters of the hot milk into the bowl in a thin stream, whisking constantly, then pour everything back into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk.
7
Whisk over a medium heat until the cream thickens, about 3 minutes.
8
Off the heat, add the squeezed-out gelatine and the butter cut into pieces, and mix.
9
Press cling film directly onto the surface and leave to cool.
10
Once the crème pâtissière is fully chilled, work it with a whisk until smooth. Whip the full-fat cream to a chantilly and fold it into the crème pâtissière in 3 additions.
11
Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 10 mm fluted nozzle. Refrigerate.
Assembly
Ingredients
- neutral glaze
- 1 peach
- a few verbena leaves
Method
1
Pipe the lemon verbena diplomat cream into the tart case and smooth with a spatula.
2
Unmould the peach jelly disc and place it on a wire rack set over a plate.
3
Gently warm the neutral glaze to loosen it, then pour it over the frozen disc (my glaze went wrong because I had the unfortunate idea of mixing the last of the neutral glaze with some blond glaze, resulting in a very lumpy mixture).
4
Immediately smooth the excess glaze with a spatula before it sets (if the glaze layer is too thick, it will slowly run down the sides of the tart).
5
Using a large offset spatula, place the glazed disc onto the tart filled with diplomat cream, perfectly centred.
6
Finish piping the verbena diplomat cream all around the disc and decorate with thin peach slices and verbena leaves.
Gallery
