This easy Peach Crostata or Peach Galette is a simple and rustic summer dessert filled with fresh ripe peaches or nectarines, flavored with a light hint of cinnamon. Serve it with ice cream to cool you down on a hot summer day.
Summer used to be my favorite season when I was still in school because it signified the end of a school year and the beginning of a three-month vacation that I could fill with good books, trips to the beach, afternoon naps on a hammock, and nights of star-watching. I envy my teenage self now that I no longer have the luxury of summer vacation. But there is one thing I look forward to every summer, peach season. The ripest and the sweetest of peaches you can find are in the middle of the summer heat, perfect for a rustic summer Peach Crostata.
How to Make Peach Crostata {Peach Galette}
For all pies and tarts, I always start off with my all-butter pie crust; it’s an extremely versatile recipe. Roll the pie dough out just as you would while making a regular pie, but you won’t be needing any pie dish. Just add the filling straight on the dough leaving a border, fold up the edges and bake til golden brown.
One important thing you will need to decide is whether to peel your fruits. When baked up, the skin has no flavor and will fall off the flesh anyways. But peeling them will keep your galette neat and pretty after it is baked.
Peeling Peaches and Nectarines for Peach Crostata
What You’ll Need
- Ripe but firm peaches or nectarines.
- A pot of boiling water with enough water to cover the peaches entirely.
- A pot of ice water for quenching the peaches after they come out of the hot water bath.
How to Peel Peaches and Nectarines
- Score the top of the fruit with an “x” enough to break the skin.
- Dunk the fruit into the boiling water bath for 30 seconds.
- Fish it out and immediately dunk it in the ice bath for 10 seconds.
- The skin should already start peeling away where you make the scores. Use a small paring knife to help with the peeling if necessary, but the skin should come off very easily.
Note that if you use green peaches, the skin will not come off easily. So avoid doing this if you know your peaches are not ripe. If you’re not sure, test one out first before giving the whole bunch a hot bath. Refer to this post by The Kitchn for step by step photos.
I’ve made this Peach Crostata with both peaches and nectarines and they tasted exactly the same. No surprise here since nectarines are really just bald peaches. So if you are shopping and found ripe nectarines instead of ripe peaches, feel free to substitute so you can use the best fruits for your enjoyment. Serve them up with some homemade lactose-free vanilla bean ice cream or homemade whipped cream, or both for good measure.
Reference Recipes
- How to Make an All-Butter Pie Crust – for step by step tutorial on how to make pie dough
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @wildwildwhisk on Instagram. I’d love to see what’s cooking up in your kitchen. Cheers!
Peach Crostata
Ingredients
For pie crust
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 rounded tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ rounded teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 ounce unsalted butter - cold
- 3 tablespoon cold water
- Extra flour for rolling
For fruit filling
- 3 large yellow peaches (about 2 lbs)
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- A pinch of kosher salt
- 3 tablespoon cornstarch
Egg wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon of milk
- Extra Turbinado sugar
Instructions
Make the dough
- Add flour, sugar and salt in a small bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Then transfer to a food processor fitted with the dough blade.
- Cube the cold butter and add to the flour mixture. Pulse several times until butter is about pea and bean size, variation in size is okay, but no smaller than a pea.
- Turn the food processor to “on” position and drizzle cold water over the dough mixture through the water hole, as soon as the dough starts to pull together turn the food processor off. You may need to stop the food processor in between and get a spatula to get the flour at the bottom to mix up.
- Turn the dough out on the counter or cutting board and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic and rest in the refrigerator for an hour.
Assemble and bake
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Take pie dough out of the fridge and roll into a circle about 12” in diameter, transfer dough on to a parchment line baking sheet.
- Separate the egg yolk and egg white in two separate bowls, beat the egg white and brush egg white over the surface of the dough leaving 1 - 1.5” border. Refrigerate pie dough.
- Peel and slice peaches into ½” wedges. Toss peaches with sugar, salt, cornstarch and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
- Take the pie dough out of the refrigerator and assemble the slices in concentric circles leaving 1 - 1.5” border.
- Fold the extra dough into to cover the fruit on the outer edge.
- Add the egg yolk to the egg white along with a splash of milk, beat together to make egg wash. Brush egg wash on the outer crust and sprinkle turbinado generously over the crust.
- Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack, about 2 hours.
Notes
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Thanks for calling this a galette! I live in Italy and a crostata is a pasta frolla that is put into a tart pan with lattice top, fruit or jam filling. You never see the short crust dough with rolled edges called a crostata, only a galette (same in French and Italian.) Not sure where the term crostata got misconstrued in the US.
Can I use puff pastry?
Yes you should be able to 🙂
It actually looks too good to eat.
Haha never too good to eat!!!
Beautiful! I totally agree about wanting to just eat stone fruit, but it is also delicious in baked goods. This crostata looks especially fabulous.
Thank you so much Suzanne!
yum! love a good crostata… awesome flavour combination too. thanks for sharing, definitely will be creating this recipe.
Thank you Thalia! Be sure to let me know how it turns out for you if you do make it 🙂