The Easiest Peach Crostata – Step by step

During this marvelous season of peaches, what better dessert to make than a peach crostata. A crostata or galette is a scrumptious, rustic dessert. It’s pie dough wrapped around fresh fruit and baked to golden goodness. In my book, I consider peach crostata a “healthy” dessert, since it’s mostly fruit, right?

The beauty of this dessert, lies in its rustic character. The Japanese call it: wabi sabi. Nothing to do with wasabi! Loosely translated, wabi sabi is the beauty of things imperfect. And so it’s the rustic character of this dessert that makes it beautiful.

At this time of year, peaches are plentiful, not to mention super juicy and amazingly tasty. Although we normally associate peaches with Georgia and other southern states, they actually originated in China thousands of years ago. Peaches were a favorite foods of emperors, and consequently no one else was allowed to eat them. From China, peaches then traveled to Persia and were introduced to the Romans.

Here are the steps to create a perfect peach crostata.

1. Place the dry dough ingredients in a food processor and pulse then add the butter and egg.  Pulse to combine and it will start to look like step 2.

2. Pulse to combine.

3. It will start to form a ball.

3.  Drop this onto a floured surface.
5. Form the dough into a uniform disc (notice it’s not lumpy anymore).

6. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for one hour. If you want, make this a day ahead.

7&8. Place the peaches, lemon juice, cornstarch, thyme and sugar in a bowl and combine.

9&10. Combine the milk, room temperature egg, and room temperature Neufchatel in a bowl and blend until smooth and then chill.

11. Roll out your dough with a rolling pin to 12″. It’ll be cold, so use those muscles!

12&13. Roll the dough onto the pin and transfer to a baking sheet.

14. Spread the chilled cheese mixture over the dough leaving a 2 inch border.

15. Add the peaches, fold up the edges and crimp the overlaps.

16&17. Brush the egg wash on the edge then sprinkle with coarse sugar.

18. Sprinkle some brown sugar and thyme on the peaches.

Peachy tips for a great crostata

• The dough can be made in a food processor. Yes, that’s right.
• Leave a one hour cushion for your dough to chill in the fridge.
• Let your cream cheese, egg and milk come to room temperature for easy blending.
• Chill the cheese mixture to thicken before spreading over the dough.

Oh, and finally, if and when you make this delicious peach crostata, don’t forget to let me know what you  think. I love reading your comments. Also, make sure you share this recipe with your friends!

5 from 1 vote

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Peach Crostata

How I love peach season! Fresh peach crostata with a creamy Neufchatel filling. It one of my favorite farm to table desserts! 

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword easy baking, galette, peach dessert

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings: Change to adjust-> 8 servings

Calories 385 kcal

Author Analida Braeger

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 4 oz unsalted butter (1 stick sliced into 1" pieces)
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water

Peach Filling

• 4 peaches medium sized cut into 1/2" slices
• 2 Tbsp lemon juiced
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp thyme fresh
• 4 tsp cornstarch

Cheese Filling (room temperature to prepare)

• 6 oz Neufchatel softened*
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 egg beaten

Finishing Touches Before Baking

• 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water (for egg wash)
• 1 Tbsp sugar course, sprinkled on top of the egg wash
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar sprinkled on top of the peaches

Glaze - After Baking

• 2 Tbsp apple jelly

*Neufchatel is in essence a low fat cream cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375'F.

2. Prepare the peach filling: In a bowl place peaches, lemon juice, sugar, thyme, and cornstarch. Mix well and place in the refrigerator.

3. Prepare the cheese filling: In a separate bowl, mix with a small hand blender the Neufchatel cheese with milk and the egg and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes until thick.  (Be sure to have all of these ingredients at room temperature before combining.)  

4. For the dough: In a food processor place flour, salt, sugar and vinegar, pulse until combined. Add butter and beaten egg and continue to pulse until mixture forms a ball. Remove from the food processor and flatten out on a floured surface with the palm of your hand. Form a round disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour or overnight if you want to prep this step in advance.

5. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to create a 12" circle. Roll up the dough on a rolling pin and carefully transfer to a baking sheet. 

6. With a spatula spread chilled cheese and egg mixture around the circle leaving a 2" border.

7. Scoop peach mixture on top of the cheese egg mixture and using both hands bring up dough towards peaches crimping overlapping the dough. Also, make sure you pinch well where the dough pieces touch each other to form a crimp.

8. Brush the edge of the crust with the egg wash. Sprinkle the course sugar around the edge of the egg wash where it will stick and sprinkle the peaches with brown sugar.

9. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

10. After the crostata has cooled and set, heat the apple jelly in the microwave until slightly melted and lightly brush on the peaches only.  This will keep them moist and shiny looking. 

Recipe Notes

• The dough can be made in a food processor. Yes, that's right.
• Leave a one hour cushion for your dough to chill in the fridge.
• Let your cream cheese come to room temp for easy spreading.

Nutrition Facts

Peach Crostata

Amount Per Serving

Calories 385 Calories from Fat 162

% Daily Value*

Fat 18g28%

Saturated Fat 10g63%

Cholesterol 107mg36%

Sodium 105mg5%

Potassium 242mg7%

Carbohydrates 48g16%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 24g27%

Protein 7g14%

Vitamin A 910IU18%

Vitamin C 8.7mg11%

Calcium 54mg5%

Iron 1.9mg11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.