The first time I was trying to make pate brisee, I was scared to death. As I have told you before, I have a thing with dough, any dough for that matter. It is kind of awe, mixed with fear that I will be a total failure. It is the same feeling I had during high school, when I had to learn ancient Greek. I have never managed to do that properly. I add this to my personal failures. I never learned ancient Greek grammar or to translate from ancient Greek to contemporary Greek. Even today I am ignorant. I tried very hard just to pass the classes. The same feeling I had for dough. It is this idea you have that you will fail no matter what. Have you ever felt this way?

Anyway, I didn’t want another liability in my budget. So, I decided to go ahead and try to make at least pate brisee. What would be the worst case scenario here? Not to make it right. Ok, I promised myself to try, until I would make it perfect. No give ups this time. I was fortunate enough not to endure such a tragedy. I found a recipe from Ina Garten and I followed it point by point, comma by comma. The only thing I did not do, is to put butter. I used margarine. I never use butter in my cooking or baking. The only recipe in which I use butter is for my tsoureki. Anyway, as I have told you, I followed the recipe and voila, I made for the first time in my life pate brisee. I can never tell you how stupidly proud I felt. Now I make it very often. This pie is an example. I had some peaches left in my fridge and I thought I should do something with them. So I made them a pie.

Now just a note. I use margarine. It is great with it, but the real pate brisee is made with butter. I am sure there is a difference in taste, but since we are in a difficult age, I prefer to sacrifice a little bit of the taste to the altar of healthiness. You, by all means, do what you like.

For the pate brisee dough

Put flour, salt, sugar and cold margarine in a food processor or a mixer. If you are using mixer put the hook and start mixing everything until they become crumbles. Slowly add the water and just mix until is incorporated. Do not over mix. The dough should be still crumbled. Take a cling film and put the dough crumbles in there. Just knead once or twice until the crumbles become a dough. Do not over-knead. Cover it with the cling film and put it in the freezer or in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Preheat oven to 200° C. Take a tart pan and butter it very well. Take the dough out and roll it to become a big circle to be able to cover the tart pan and fall a little bit on the outside. At this point you should put it back in the fridge while you will prepare the peaches. I did not have the time so I just threw it in the oven. Put a parchment paper on the dough and fill with beans or in my case lentils. Bake for twenty minutes. Take the pan out and let it cool.

For the filling

Cut the peaches in slices. In a bowl throw the peaches and all the herbs, sugar and flour. Mix to cover all the pieces.

Take the parchment paper with the lentils out of the tart. Place the peaches in an overlapping manner on top of the pastry. Sprinkle with little sugar and throw the diced butter on top. Put it in the same preheated oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.