Gingersnap Mascarpone Nectarine Tartlets

As opposed to the sexy close-up, how about a demure far-away shot?

My first bag of the season of farmers market nectarines went bad after suffering for only a moment in this relentless city heat. I arrived home Sunday morning to find my tartlet plans thwarted by enormous angry flies and weepy, mangled fruit. My experience with DC produce has generally been depressing or gross, but in the still heat of a deadly weekend full of nectarine and peach casualties, I committed to transcending my own produce expectations so that I could finally and convincingly claim to friends in California that, “Christ no, I don’t miss the produce at all! Gosh, not even kind of!”

Lo and behold! As if the city knew I was about to shrug off my tenuous food allegiance, it bestowed five excellent, if bruised, nectarines upon me, and I made one of my favorite fruity baked goods to date. I might occasionally miss the ease of a California fruit excursion, but damned if I don’t love coaxing this fickle produce mistress that is the east coast into giving me a good piece of fruit every now and then.

Gingersnap Mascarpone Nectarine Tartlets

As Deb from SmittenKitchen suggests, this would be excellent with strawberries, or any kind of stone fruit, or a chocolate-wafer crust. I think you could add maple sugar to the filling and use blueberries with a graham cracker crust too and come up with something pretty awesome. I also recently saw peanut butter wafers at Whole Foods. I'm just sayin'....

Crust
43 gingersnap cookies, coarsely broken (about 3 1/2 cups of pieces—I used gingersnaps that were about the size of ‘Nilla Wafers)
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling
1 8-ounce container mascarpone cheese
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon finely chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

Topping
4 to 5 small nectarines, halved, pitted, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup peach jam, warmed
Finely chopped crystallized ginger, or mint leaves for optional garnish (I passed on this)

For crust: Preheat oven to 350°F. Finely grind gingersnaps in food processor. Add melted butter and pulse on and off until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press mixture over bottom and up sides of six 4-inch-diameter tartlet pans with removable bottoms. Bake crust until color darkens, pressing sides with back of spoon if beginning to slide, about eight minutes. Cool completely (I did not cool mine completely by any means, and it was fine).

For filling: Beat first six ingredients in medium bowl until smooth. Beat in crystallized ginger if you’re using it. Spread filling in prepared crust. Cover loosely and refrigerate at least two hours and up to one day.

For topping: Overlap nectarine slices atop filling. Brush with jam. Sprinkle with garnish if you’re using it. Serve, or refrigerate up to six hours.