From your comments, I know many of you experience strawberry season a little later than we do here in Tennessee. So if it’s been June instead of May that’s sent you picking strawberries and bringing buckets of them home, listen up.
Whether you’ve just made homemade jam or are about to (or if you picked up jam from another source!), have we got a treat for you.
If you’re an avid reader, you already know about turning strawberry jam into ice cream.
You already know how good it is slathered on buttered toast.
And if you’re looking for yet one more way to put that berry jam to good use: here it is. Just over a week ago, Tim and I discovered yet another beautiful reason to love strawberry preserves—and, boy, let me tell you, it’s show-stopping.
This tart came into our kitchen the way a lot of things do. It was the middle or end of the day, we were just about finished with work and one or the other of us said, “Doesn’t a strawberry tart sound good right now?”
The same thing happened a couple weeks ago when I woke up and said to Tim, “Let’s make brownies!”
We’d barely made the bed and definitely hadn’t showered, but suddenly the two of us were standing in the kitchen and, in our pajamas, melting chocolate on the stove.
Last Friday night, it was cookies. Sunday, pizza with a garlic yogurt sauce. And the day this tart arrived, a simple suggestion to do something with peaches and strawberries and a tart pan.
We’re calling what resulted a strawberry peach tart on a maple shortbread cookie crust, but we may as well call it a match made in heaven because the combination is so extraordinary, writing about it now has me thinking of peanut butter and jelly, rainy days and movies, avocado and toast.
Believe me when I tell you that if there’s anything better than fresh homemade jam, it’s fresh homemade jam baked on the most buttery, addictive shortbread you’ve ever tasted, topped with sliced Georgia peaches cooked soft.
The crust is an adaptation of a recipe I saw on Nourished Kitchen, for shortbread cookies sweetened only with maple syrup. It really is as good as a cookie, and you could eat it on its own.
Then, the topping is as simple as a layer of jam, a layer of peaches and a tiny bit of coconut sugar sprinkled all over the top.
When it comes out of the oven, the tart is all bubbly and golden, flaky on the bottom and gooey on top. The bits of crust crumbs that break off are bonus nubbins you want to scoop up and eat with a spoon.
The day we made it, between the two of us, Tim and I almost ate it whole.
I don’t know what your Tuesday night plans are, but if you have jam on hand, make this. If you don’t have jam on hand, make this as soon as you do.
It’s one of those sparkling, shimmering examples of how one good thing (jam!) + another good thing (shortbread!) = something even better than you’d imagined.
Print
Strawberry Peach Tart on Maple Shortbread Cookie Crust
- Yield: Makes one 10-inch tart 1x
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup einkorn flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1/4 cup Organic Grade B Maple Syrup
- 1/2 cup strawberry basil jam (or whatever strawberry jam you like)
- 2 ripe but firm peaches, washed and sliced into half circles
- Extra coconut sugar, for sprinkling (optional)
, for sprinkling (optional)Instructions
- Preheat the oven or a large convection toaster oven to 350F. Generously butter (and/or line with buttered parchment if you like) a tart pan (I used a 10-inch pan).
- In a food processor, pulse together 1 3/4 cup einkorn flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add cubed butter and pulse until it starts to come together. Add 1/4 cup pure Grade B maple syrup; pulse until mixture starts grouping together like a ball of dough. Turn off machine, gather together dough and roll out on a floured surface. Place in tart pan, pierce all over gently with a fork and bake for 14 to 18 minutes.
- Remove tart crust from oven when it’s just slightly golden. Dollop on 1/2 cup of jam, spreading a layer all over the crust. Top with sliced peaches, organizing them in a round. Bake again for 3 to 6 minutes, until the jam is bubbly and the peaches are just getting soft. Let cool before slicing and serving.
Notes
As always, you are free to replace einkorn flour with spelt or another wheat-type flourhere. You may want to lower the flour amount to 1 1/2 cups if you do. Also, while we used peaches, you could also swap a different fruit, and we’d love to hear what you come up with.
About Shanna Mallon
Shanna Mallon is a freelance writer who holds an MA in writing from DePaul University. Her work has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including The Kitchn, Better Homes & Gardens, Taste of Home, Houzz.com, Foodista, Entrepreneur, and Ragan PR. In 2014, she co-authored The Einkorn Cookbook with her husband, Tim. Today, you can find her digging into food topics and celebrating the everyday grace of eating on her blog, Go Eat Your Bread with Joy. Shanna lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with Tim and their two small kids.
Never have I felt the lack of my oven so keenly! Peach and strawberry sounds like a wonderful combination especially with that maple sweetened crust.
I wish England were closer and I could have you over for a tart!
beautiful!
Thanks, Jamie!
Oh. My. YUM!! I can’t wait to try this! We are at the end of strawberry season, and I never did get around to buying enough berries to make jam. There is a terrific local vendor, though (Jam According to Daniel) who has a strawberry and chocolate mint jam. I’m thinking that it would work perfectly for this!
Strawberry and chocolate mint jam! Woah.
Shanna, this is GORGEOUS! I have apricot jam made from one of my student’s apricot trees sitting around… think I’ve found a use for it!!
An apricot tree, be still my heart! How lovely!
That is seriously one gorgeous tart!!! I’m seriously in love!
Thanks so much, Jocelyn!
i bet if you topped this with ice cream (dairy free for me, please!) it would take it a whole other level.
i love that you can just think up a food idea/dream and make it a reality. i’m not much of a jam person but i do like the sound of this crust.
I like how you think!
Um, WOW. We picked the wrong time to go gluten-free. 🙂
Haha, well, maybe a nice gluten-free shortbread in its place? : )
I’ve been dreaming of making another fruit tart since the last time I made a strawberry tart – I just didn’t know which fruits to use. Now, I’m tempted to make this combination (perhaps with a different crust). But..this looks oh-so-good! I love how the kitchen is every bit as conducive for creative minds as a painting workshop! 🙂 Enjoy every bit of that beautiful tart on my behalf! 😉
Oh, but the crust is so good! Ha! Would love to hear what you come up with. ; )
I love maple syrup so the idea of a shortbread sweetened with just that is music to my ears! Peach and strawberry is a gorgeous combination too.
Hope you try it and enjoy!
This is a beauty! Love everything about it, but those peaches look sublime. Great idea for using strawberry jam. When we lived in the US I used to can tons of strawberry jam…unfortunately that is no longer in my routine. 😉
Thanks, Jess! Bummer about no more jam-making… but Thailand has its own charms. : )
I love fruit filled tarts! this one is beautiful! Looks like a match made in heaven to me too, can’t wait to try this crust. . maple syrup, awesome!
Thanks so much, Alice!
This is lovely! I’m going to have to wait a month or so to make strawberry-anything (we’ve been buying them, but they just aren’t great here yet). Hope you have a lovely weekend, Shanna! xo
Sarah, Thanks for saying so! I find it really interesting to know when the berries come into season in various parts of the country (well, and world). Isn’t it crazy? Minnesota does not feel far to me at all, yet we have different produce seasons! Or slightly staggered ones. Amazing.
This looks wonderful.
I’d make it today if I had some Einkorn Flour but I don’t. Neither Lazy Acres (our best market here in Santa Barbara) nor Wholefoods carry it. “NO, not pine cone flour. Einkorn flour.” In fact their uppity staff get positively indignant when I insist that it actually exists. I know because by now I have gone and read all about it. How did you ever come by it? What should I use in the meantime? Can simple King Arthur all purpose be used?
FHP – Oh, how frustrating! Our WF does carry einkorn berries in the bulk bins, and you could buy those and grind them down into flour yourself. BUT if you are really wanting to get your hands on einkorn, just order it online.
And if you still don’t get einkorn, you could swap it here with any basic all-purpose flour — spelt, for example. Good luck!
Would it be possible to use the crust recipe to make cookies? By the way, this blog is GREAT for finding einkorn recipes! My mom and I just started using the einkorn in place of traditional wheat which has been so genetically modified over the years (I was horrified!) and I have been looking everywhere for recipes. On my to-do list this weekend is to try your einkorn cinnamon rolls! They look amazing and to die for! 🙂
Hi Annick!
Yes, I think the crust makes a great shortbread cookie! Thanks for your comment–we have really been doing a lot of experimenting with einkorn and have enjoyed its unique taste, but we know it behaves differently in recipes. Let us know if you try the cinnamon rolls!
I made this tart every time we had company for dinner this past summer, using your recipe for the strawberry jam (omitting the basil because I was too skeptical) and we never got tired of it! Fresh and light.
Yay! I love hearing that, Amy. Thank you so much for coming back to say so!
This sounds wonderful! My dad would love it.