Photo by James Ransom

- Merrill

When my sister and I were little, my mother would often make jam tartlets with us. On these lazy afternoons, we would pull out her collection of tiny stainless steel tart molds -- in diamond, oval and triangle shapes -- which I have since inherited from her. For this challenge against Amanda, I decided to create a hybrid of those jam tartlets and the classic fresh fruit tarts you always find at good French pâtisseries (and which I made countless times at culinary school). I incorporated some ground almonds into the crust and instead of pastry cream, which would have been too sweet with the jam, I dolloped on some mascarpone. Finally, I finished the peaches with a light glaze, all French-like.

You can easily turn this into one large tart (a 10-inch would work best), but it's fun to make dainty little tartlets every once in a while -- especially if there are little ones around.

Fresh Peach Tartlets

Makes 8 to 12 tartlets

The tartlet shells:

2 ounces blanched almonds
6 ounces all-purpose flour
1 ounce sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 large egg yolks
2 to 3 tablespoons ice water

The peach tartlets:

1 cup good peach and/or apricot jam, divided
1 cup mascarpone cheese
4 to 6 small, ripe peaches

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Like this post? See Merrill's post from last week: Grilled Tomatillo and Pineapple Salsa.