I have been trying to make this tart all summer. I have been buying four nectarines every week since they became available two months ago. I buy them hard and ripen them in a brown paper bag. With the first few batches, by the time they were ripe I was too busy in my work week to make a tart, so I ate the nectarines for breakfast instead. Then I bought a few batches during the heat wave hoping that they would ripen right as the heat broke, but instead the ripened instantly, and I ate the nectarines for breakfast instead. Then I fractured my hand and I couldn’t bake, but I was still buying nectarines in case my hand magically healed… plus I was really enjoying having nectarines for breakfast.
My hand is still hurt, but I am getting really good at cutting with my right hand while holding a piece of fruit with my left elbow. I am still utterly defeated by jars though. This week, I finally made the tart (my neighbor opened the apricot jam jar for the glaze) and it is totally satisfying. The crust is like a substantial, nutty cookie. The cheese filling is creamy and not too sweet. The rose glazed nectarines are fresh and fragrant. In my book this tart has enough real food in it (fresh fruit, cheese, whole grains, nuts) that you can totally still eat it for breakfast.
HAZELNUT BUCKWHEAT TART CRUST
- 2 cups hazelnut meal (You can also grind up hazelnuts yourself in a food processor)
-
2 cups buckwheat flour
- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 14 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 1 large egg
- the zest of 1 lemon
- a pinch of salt
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients with the butter using a pastry cutter or a food processor. It will be crumbly.
- Whip the cold water, egg and lemon zest together in a small bowl and then stir it into the crumbly dough with a fork until it starts to hold together.
- Transfer the dough into a buttered 10-13 inch tart tin and press it to line the bottom and sides evenly. It will be quite thick. Prick the crust all over with a fork.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until the crust begins to brown. Cool the crust on a rack while you prepare the cheese filing and nectarine topping.
CREAMY CHEESE FILLING
- 2/3 cup high quality whole-milk ricotta
- 1 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- the zest of 1 lemon
- a pinch of salt
- 3 Tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
Combine all of the ingredients beat until smooth. Refrigerate the filling while you prepare the nectarine topping.
NECTARINE ROSE TOPPING
- 4 or 5 ripe nectarines
- 1/4 cup apricot jam
- 1/4 cup rosewater
- lemon juice to taste (optional)
- Slice the nectarines into twelve wedges each and discard the pits.
- Whisk together the apricot jam and rosewater. Strain out any lumps. Taste it and add lemon juice if you want to increase the tartness.
- When the crust is totally cool, top it with the cheese filling.
- Arrange the nectarine slices around the outer edge of the tart so that they overlap. Make concentric circles of overlapping nectarines until the entire tart is topped.
- Brush the top of the tart with the apricot rosewater glaze. Serve immediately or refrigerate and eat gradually for breakfast!
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Big Sis Little Dish 
So sorry that you had to suffer through a fractured hand all summer, that sounds terrible! But this tart you ended up making looks absolutely phenomenal 🙂 and even more impressive considering your hand’s still hurt! Hope it heals ASAP.
Thank you for the good wishes. I started occupational therapy today and I am feeling hopeful! I love the story about how you came up with the name for your blog!
This tart sounds amazing I am going to be looking for nectarines.
Let me know how it turns out for you! Thanks for dropping by.
Love the picture of Mum camping, love the memories, love the tart! Auntie Mona
The bitter and sour reminds me of the ice tea mix. Mona
Oh yeah. I should blog about that sometime. That is a totally good example of my weird childhood palate. Grandma would have had enough sense to not eat a bunch of that stuff, but I bet that she would have agred with me that it was tasty.
xo
Erin
Yum! Nectarines and rosewater…Mona and I will have to make this with Almond and quinoa crust.
Oh shoot! You are allergic to buckwheat and mona is allergic to Hazelnuts! What a fine bunch we are! Well almonds will work for sure….maybe try rice flour with a bit of potato starch and tapioca starch instead of the buckwheat. It would be different but still good.
Hi guys!
My name is Rebecca and I’m one of the Editors at HuffPost Taste. I’m working on a roundup of some of our favorite nectarine recipes, and would love to feature a photo from this SPECTACULAR post, pending your permission. We’ll link back to your original post for the recipe.
Would you mind just letting me know whether you’d like us to credit the photo to your names or your blog’s name? Thanks very much!
– Rebecca
Hello Rebecca!
That is fantastic! Please credit Big Sis Little Dish. Thank you for thinking of us!
best wishes,
Erin Orr
Yay! The HuffPost Taste article about nectarines is up! I am so happy that this recipe is featured…along with 20 other delicious ideas. I want to make a nectarine slump! Check it out!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/nectarine-recipes_n_3791497.html?utm_hp_ref=taste&ir=Taste
What a gorgeous tart! And you used two of my absolute favorite ingredients – hazelnuts and rosewater. I’m a little late to the nectarine game but I bet this would be lovely with a lot of different fruits. I can’t wait to try it.
By the way -those are some impressive knife skills for one hand. Hope you’re healing fast!
Thank you so much For your well wishes. I am healing up! I agree that this tart would work with other kinds of fruit. Please let me know if you find any good substitutions!
Erin
HI, A couple of thoughts:
1. You don’t say how large a tarte pan to use. I guessed at 10-11″ round, but that would have been helpful. Given the amount of crust made, it would not work out well for cooks unfamiliar to make this and then try to get it into something any smaller.
2. You didn’t say whether to grease the pan, but I guessed and did it.
3. The crust is a bit odd.. heavy, not very interesting flavor (i did it exactly but added 1 teasp org. ground nutmeg — and toasted the hazelnuts 5m and cooled, then ground) but it was still heavy and overwhelmed by the buckwheat flour. It’s just overall doughy and too much for the delicate topping. I make summer tartes a lot, and use ground nuts.. but I wanted to try yours. Basically my go to crust is 2 c ground nuts, 7 T butter, the other ingredients minus the egg – done in a food processor as you did. Bake for 20m and then fill or bake again with a filling that works baked.. I do cook with buckwheat flour a lot — ginger cake, banana bread, etc. and it comes out fluffy. But for whatever reason, “pressing” it into the tarte pan just didn’t really add to the overall problem that it was a heavy dough to begin with. Nut-only crusts are light and crumble in the mouth.
4. The mascarpone / ricotta filling tasted unfinished – esp against the doughy crust. I would recommend putting the egg (or 2) in there instead of the dough-crust, and baking that for 15 minutes just to get a more custard feel that tastes finished.
5. It’s gorgeous with the nectarines and mine came out the same in terms of look. The nectarine part is lovely.
Hello Mary,
A nice light nut crust sounds lovely! My intention with this tart was to make a sort substantial breakfast tart, but if I ever want to make a proper dessert version. I’ll give your nut crust a try.
I have made this tart in a few different sized tins, none smaller than 10 inches. Thank you for the note. I’ll add that detail 9andthe buttering of the tin) to the post.
I am not fan, myself, of this sort of filling cooked with egg added. It starts to seem like an Italian cheesecake which, for whatever reason, I don’t personally care for. Sometimes I make the mascarpone filling with yogurt or sour cream instead of the ricotta, which makes it even lighter. It really just depends what I have on hand.
best wishes,
Erin