Grilled Blackberry Peach Tart
Puff pastry, cheesecake filling from a powder, and fruit, cooked over a grate in a foil pan.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 87
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 60 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Frozen puff pastry | 1 sheet | thaw in the cooler overnight, not on the tailgate |
|---|---|---|
| Cream cheese | 8 oz | needs a cooler; softened before you start |
| Granulated sugar | 3 tbsp | |
| Lemon juice | 1 tsp | the shelf-stable squeeze bottle is fine |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | |
| Blackberries | 2 cups | wild ones if you find them, otherwise a clamshell |
| Peaches | 2 to 3 | sliced thin; firm fruit holds its shape over fire |
| Brown sugar | 3 tbsp | |
| Powdered sugar | 1 tbsp | for dusting at the end |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down, or run a gas grill on medium. You want steady indirect heat around 375°F, not flames licking the pan.
- Line a disposable foil pan or a sheet of heavy foil with parchment. Unroll the thawed pastry onto it.
- Stir the sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla into the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth. A fork works if the cheese is soft.
- Spread the cream cheese over the pastry in a thin layer, leaving an inch bare around the edge. Fold that bare inch back over itself to make a rim.
- Lay the peach slices over the filling and scatter the blackberries into the gaps. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the fruit.
- Set the pan on the grate away from direct coals, cover with a lid or a foil tent, and cook 25 to 30 minutes until the rim is puffed and browned underneath.
- Pull it off, let it sit ten minutes so the filling firms up, then dust with powdered sugar and cut it into squares.
This is a car-camping dessert and it stays one. Cream cheese and puff pastry both need a cooler, so there is no honest way to shrink it into a pack. What it does buy you is a real dessert for six out of one foil pan and thirty minutes of coals you already have burning.
The parchment under the pastry is the part people skip and regret. Foil alone glues itself to the bottom crust and you spend the whole meal picking it out. Indirect heat matters too: the sugar on the fruit will scorch long before the pastry cooks through if the pan sits over live flame. Push the coals to one side, keep the pan on the other, and cover it so the top sets.
Packing
Pastry and cream cheese ride in the cooler, wrapped separately. Premix the sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice into a small jar at home so camp is one stir. Bring a disposable foil pan and parchment.
Variations
- Swap the peaches for apples and add cinnamon when it gets cold out.
- No cream cheese in the cooler? Use a jar of fruit preserves as the base layer and skip the mixing step entirely.
- A dutch oven with coals on the lid does the same job if the wind is bad.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/blackberry-peach-and-cream-cheese-grilled-tart