When life gives you peaches, make... er, peach tarts!
At least that was the first thing that came to my mind when our neighbor dropped off a five gallon bucket full of peaches. Previous experience has shown us that these peaches are more for eating than they are for making things with them, like pie for example. They give off too much juice and the pie never sets up because it's too runny. I thought I would navigate around this problem by making peach tarts where the sugar is added ahead of time. This would draw out the juice and allow me to put in the peaches and add the liquid afterwards as I saw fit. It turned out fantastic.
Peach Tarts
About 4 cups of chopped peaches (usually 6 peaches, depending on the size)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (if your peaches are not as ripe or if they're not as sweet as you would like, add more by tablespoon to taste)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs orange juice
Box Pie Crust Mix
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the pix crust mix according to directions for one single shell pie crust. Chop the peaches and put them into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Stir everything together then let sit for 20 minutes.
While the peaches are sitting, roll out the pie crust dough and cut out circles with a round cookie or biscuit cutter. You can also use the top of a drinking glass if you don't have a cutter wide enough. Take the dough circles and press them gently into an UNGREASED muffin tin. Don't use the extremely large muffin tins as the tarts will not set up. Normal muffin sizes work best here!
Once the tart shells are ready, fill each container with a spoonful of peaches, about half full, being careful not to overfill. Sprinkle with brown sugar on top and bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes. Let cool fully before trying to remove. Enjoy!
