Tarte Aux Abricots - Glazed French Apricot Tart With Almonds
photo by The Flying Chef
- Ready In:
- 3hrs
- Ingredients:
- 17
- Yields:
-
1 Tarte aux Abricots
- Serves:
- 8
ingredients
-
Pastry
- 75 g cold unsalted butter
- 175 g plain flour, sieved
- zest of a lemon
- 14.79 ml caster sugar
- 1 egg
- splash cold water
-
The Filling
- 650 g fresh apricots, not too ripe
- 29.58 ml soft light brown sugar
- 88.74 ml ground almonds
- 2 large free-range eggs
- 50 g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
- 200 ml double cream or 200 ml whipping cream
-
Glaze
- 73.94 ml apricot jam
-
To Finish
- icing sugar
- fresh edible flower
- creme fraiche or cream
directions
- Heat oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6. To make the pastry place the cold butter into a food processor with the sieved flour and lemon zest. Blitz until the mixture becomes the texture of breadcrumbs.
- Whisk the sugar into the egg then pour into the machine with a splash of water. Blitz just long enough for the mixture to form a ball. Remove with your hands and ensure you have a nice firm ball by moulding with your hands. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Meanwhile halve and stone your apricots then place on a baking tray cut side up. Sprinkle all over with the light brown sugar then bake them in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they are soft to the point of a knife but not falling apart.
- Roll out and line a 25cm loose-bottomed tart tin with the pastry. Chill again for ideally an hour but a minimum of 30 minutes.
- Once rested prick all over the base with a fork then line with parchment paper and follow with baking beans. Bake blind for 15-20 minutes until the base is just beginning to crisp but has not browned. Remove the beans and allow to cool.
- Sprinkle the ground almonds all over the base then top with a layer of apricots. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. Remove the vanilla seeds from the pod and whisk into the egg mixture along with the double cream or whipping cream.
- Place the tart onto a baking tray then carefully pour over the custard mixture. Place in the oven for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 for a further 15-20 minutes when the custard should be set and a lovely golden colour.
- For the Glaze: Warm the jam and allow to cool just above room temperature and then pour or spoon it over the tart.
- Allow to cool before slicing and serving with crème fraîche, plenty of icing sugar and some edible flowers.
Reviews
-
Utterly Fabulous!!!! I made this today and I have only allowed us to share one piece between the 3 of us. I have my family coming down tomorrow and I want it for then.. I will no doubt have to come back and update this review then as I know they will love this. I am also having to stop my son and hubby taking sneaky little slithers from the fridge until then.. lol.. No seriously this is well worth the effort to make it turns out sensational and for me far better than any tart I have bought from the bakers. This is the absolute perfect combination of ingredients FT and this one has gone straight into my favourites. I served ours with fresh whipped cream today, but I have bought some vanilla bean ice cream to serve with it, along with the whipped cream tomorrow. Totally indulgent but totally delicious. This is a winner with a big thumbs up. :) Update: My whole family had this today with fresh whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream. Every single one of them said wow. Not to boast but we really are the tart family in the sense that we live in Switzerland so like FT we get some really amazing tarts from our local village bakeries. There were 7 more people that tried this today and they all said how superb it was. The only criticism my mum had was that the apricot glaze over the top would have been better if I had used my mums homemade apricot jam with lavender. I have to agree that would have added a whole different taste to it. But then I am blessed to have a mum that makes some pretty mean preserves. But all my family could not stop going on about the taste of the tart in general and also the fact that using the fresh apricots that were not over ripe, just added to the tart flavour and for us just pushed it over the top. I have gone on now I know, but for those who are put off by all the steps and the labour intensive steps from the pastry to the apricots to the baking of the tart itself. All I can say is that if you love apricots and this kind of thing it will in no way disappoint, FT has come up with the absolute perfect tart recipe.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p><strong><span>The sunflowers in the field behind my house in SW France:</span></strong></p>
<p><img title=Sunflowers src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/DSCN8221.jpg alt=Sunflowers width=640 height=480 /><br /><strong><span><br /><br />I am British (English-Scottish), but I was born in South Africa and have lived all over the world, including Hong Kong, Germany, Cyprus, USA & Singapore. I have also been very fortunate to have travelled extensively over the years.........I still have wanderlust! <br /><br />I used to be an English Literature & Art History teacher & lecturer; before that, I trained and worked as a Graphic Designer for many years. I now live in France with my husband & my daughter who has just started university in September 2006. We also have one very chatty Burmese cat Willow, who allows us to live with her here! (I used to have three cats, I recently lost Monty, a beautiful seal point Siamese and before that, Rama, who was a debonair blue point Siamese cat - I would love to have another Siamese cat or cats in the future!)</span></strong></p>
<p><em><strong><span>This is my Burmese Cat, Willow, sunning herself on the log pile in the kitchen garden:</span></strong></em></p>
<p><strong><img title=My src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/ABaconButtyandSundryFoodPhotos34.jpg alt=My width=640 height=480 /></strong></p>
<p><strong><span>Here is my lovely Monty, a seal point Siamese, and Willow, sitting in the kitchen garden last year, and a few months before Monty died; he was 18yrs old:</span></strong></p>
<p><img title=Monty src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/AbsolutelySinfulStickyToffeePudding.jpg alt=Monty width=640 height=480 />My</p>
<p><strong><span>This is my wonderful old boy, Rama, a blue-point Siamese, who died when he was 20yrs old - excuse the old and much sellotaped photo:</span></strong></p>
<p><img title=Rama src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/Rama1stOctober2004164.jpg alt=Rama width=517 height=639 /></p>
<p><strong><span>My favourite pastimes are: reading, writing, painting & drawing, photography, gardening, anything creative, walking, travelling, dining out and of course COOKING! I love all types of cuisine, but especially Traditional British - and NO it is NOT all bad!! I particularly love food associated with the changing seasons plus traditional feasts & festivals, as well as Slow Cooking. I also enjoy French & North African cuisine, come to think of it, there isn't much I don't like! <br /><br />My husband & I run a Chambres D'Hotes, (Bed and Breakfast) called Auberge de la Fontaine here in beautiful South West France; we specialise in Gourmet Food & Wine Breaks, French Antiques & Restoration courses, French Language courses and French Cookery classes. Our home is completely furnished with Antique French furniture that we have rescued & restored ourselves. Our charming village has one of the oldest Churches in the region & it is famous for its connection with the St.Jacques de Compostella Pilgrimage route, as well as being within the Cognac & Bordeaux wine growing area. <br /><br />We have a wonderful garden where we grow ALL of our own herbs and most of our fruit and vegetables. I specialise in rare, unusual and old-fashioned herbs, which I grow in our walled garden. As well as growing herbs, I also grow many different varieties of lavender, old-fashioned shrub roses and heirloom fruit and vegetables. <br /><br />We have lived overseas for many, many years now - but we both still love going home to Northern England, near Scarborough & York, to visit our family & friends. We also love indulging in dining out when we are there, in a wide variety of EXCELLENT Gastro-Pubs that we have in North Yorkshire; and popping in to have a Pint of REAL ENGLISH ALE in our local pub is a always a must!! <br /></span></strong></p>
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