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This simple peach tart recipe is a light and delicious summer dessert! Ripe peaches, a mascarpone filling, and fresh thyme make the perfect pairing.
I call this peach tart recipe a cheater’s peach pie. My mom has this award winning peach pie she makes each summer. It’s rich, custardy, and full of cream and sugar. My great aunt won a prize for it at her county fair. It takes several hours to put together, and let me tell you, it’s a masterpiece. Because it’s so rich and time consuming, my family only had it a few times each summer. But when we did, it was the best day. I love celebrating family traditions like that. To this day my mom makes her peach pie a few times per summer. And now that we’ve shared it on the internet, it’s special to hear from people all over the country each summer making my mom’s recipe to celebrate peach season.
Sometimes, though, I’m daunted by the thought of crimping edges and boiling peaches and baking for an hour and chilling for another hour. And sometimes I’m looking for something a bit lighter, less of a sugar coma and more of a light sugar high. So for moments like those, I’ve created this cheater’s peach pie, or really, a simple peach tart.
Related: Best Peach Recipes for Peach Season
How to make this peach tart recipe
This simple peach tart recipe is not about store-bought shortcuts. It still uses homemade crust and takes a bit of time to put together. However, it’s a simpler, lighter take on my mom’s stunning pie. First, it uses our rye pie crust, which has a bit of rye flour to add a nutty taste and a bit of nutrients. It’s significantly smaller than a traditional pie; the tart shell is small and baked with only a very thin lip around the edge.
This allows for spreading thin layer of honey mascarpone over the entire crust, instead of a dense, custardy filling. To mimic the taste of my mom’s peach pie, I added a kick of vanilla that brings in a similar vibe. For the topping of this peach tart, one ripe, juicy peach, raw and cut into thin slices arranged in a spiral. It’s sprinkled with a few fresh thyme leaves and then drizzled with a bit of honey. And for a final decoration, a few tiny stars cut out of the remaining pie dough. The result? Perfection.
Is this considered a healthy dessert recipe? It depends on your definition of healthy. It does contain butter, flour, and mascarpone cheese. But it’s made with whole food ingredients, has a small portion size, and is naturally sweetened with honey. For us, that’s a healthy end to a summer meal. So whether you’re looking for a stunning pie or a cheater’s pie, this simple peach tart recipe hit the mark for us. Happy peach season!
Love mascarpone dessert recipes? Here are a few of our favorite desserts with mascarpone cheese:
Looking for peach recipes?
Peach recipes are what summer’s all about. Along with this peach tart, here are a few of our favorite peach recipes:
- The Best Peach Pie!
- Peach, Heirloom Tomato, and Burrata Salad
- Easy Peach Sangria
- Best Peach Cobbler
- Peach Crisp with Basil
- Fresh Peach Salsa
- Peaches & Berries with Mint Syrup
- Black Bean and Quinoa Bowl with Peach Salsa
Looking for healthy dessert recipes?
Let’s face it: there are no truly healthy dessert recipes. However, there are lots of dessert recipes that are lighter takes on traditional heavy sweets. Here are a few of our favorite lighter dessert recipes for summer, with a few peach recipes thrown in:
- Peach Brulee
- Berries and Yogurt Whipped Cream
- Amazing Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
- Easy Bananas Foster
- Chocolate Tahini No Bake Vegan Cookies
- 10 Fruit Desserts to Try Now
This recipe is…
This peach tart recipe is vegetarian, naturally sweet, and refined sugar free.
Simple Peach Tart Recipe
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6 to 8 1x
Description
This simple peach tart recipe is a light and delicious summer dessert! Ripe peaches, a mascarpone filling, and fresh thyme make the perfect pairing.
Ingredients
- 1 rye pie crust
- ½ cup (4 ounces) mascarpone
- 1 ½ tablespoons honey, plus additional for drizzling
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large ripe peach
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Instructions
- Make the rye pie crust (save the second dough for later use).
- Remove one dough from the refrigerator. Let it stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes until it is able to roll. Roll it out to an even 1/8-inch thickness, rotating the dough often and dusting with a little flour if it sticks. Cut the dough into circle a bit larger than the bottom of a 9-inch a pie plate; we traced around a plate 8 ½ inches in diameter (you also can trace free hand a circle about 8 ½ inches in diameter). Place it in the pie plate; the edges of the dough should come up about ½ inch on the inside of the plate. Dock the dough by pricking the bottom and sides all over with a fork; make as many holes as possible since this will prevent bubbles from forming.
- If desired, with the remaining dough, cut out small stars and place them on a baking sheet.
- Bake the stars about 10 minutes, until golden, then remove from the oven to cool. (Discard the remaining dough, or sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the scraps and bake them with the stars for an added treat!)
- At the same time, bake the tart shell until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Then remove it from the oven to cool fully; we slid ours out onto a baking rack to cool for about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix the mascarpone with the honey and vanilla. Thinly slice the peaches.
- When ready to serve, spread the peach tart crust with mascarpone (it helps to let the mascarpone stand for several minutes at room temperature so it is easy to spread). Arrange the peaces in an overlapping pattern over the mascarpone, then sprinkle with thyme leaves. Place the stars in the center. Drizzle the entire top with honey in both directions. Carefully cut into wedges and serve. (Make ahead: the tart is best the day it’s made, but you can make the pie crust in advance and set at room temperature until serving, or refrigerate overnight. It is also possible to refrigerate leftovers and eat chilled the next day, it saves well wrapped in aluminum foil in the refrigerator.)
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
thank you for this slimmed down version of your family’s pie, but with real ingredients! Love that there’s not as much sugar, that the crust is home made and even that there’s mascarpone! Finally, love the smaller size, the full sized pies are trouble anyway so why make extra!
Looks awesome! I am pretty new in the kitchen but lately I am into tarts and yours looks yummy :)
I was wondering if I could bake the dough with the mascarpone cheese?
Thank you!
Hi there! I would not bake the crust with the cheese as it would melt! It’s best to bake the crust first and then spread with the mascarpone.
It really bet this tastes as good as it looks, Thank you
I made the tart this weekend and it was greatly enjoyed by friends. I added a bit of cinnamon to the mascarpone and placed sliced peaches and strawberries on top. Delicious!
Oh I’m so glad to hear it was a hit! Great idea with the cinnamon (we were considering that too!) and I love the idea of using strawberries too!
Oh God!!! This looks and appearance great!! I I can’t wait to try it! Really, I Love this healthy and wonderful recipe!! Thank you
Thank you so much! Let us know if you try it out.
This looks SO good!! Thanks for sharing! Love your idea – using the extra pie dough to make stars! Brilliant!
Thank you so much! Cutting stars out of anything is just too fun. :)
Yummy! This is a truly delightful tart recipe, Sonja! Can’t wait to try out this recipe and share a picture with you!
Thank you — we’d love to see it!
This is gorgeous! Like a more refined spin on peaches and cream :) Love the rye crust- pinning!
Thank you so much! The rye crust makes for a nice savory contrast the sweet mascarpone.
More recipes with mascarpone please. This is amazing :)
Haha! OK, we’ll put that in our idea list :)