Apricot Tart
Source: Maida Heatter's Pies & Tarts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1997 ed.), pg. 91.
Okay, so I had major difficulties with the crust portion of this recipe (Rich Flan Pastry) and ended up abandoning it altogether and used my go-to crust recipe which is NOT a Maida Heatter recipe. Confessions aside, this is delicious!
The recipe covers 4 1/2 pages in the book and is a bit daunting. However, a lot of it involves the typical details of a Maida Heatter recipe (being very specific about how to do everything), so after you have done many of these tasks a few times, it becomes old hat.
The filling, divine enough to eat as a breakfast treat, can be made days ahead and refrigerated. I made this three days before baking the tart and stored it in the refrigerator.
Filling
12 ounces dried apricots
2 cups water
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
Optional: 1 TBS. rum, cognac or kirsch (I used kirsch)
Optional: 2 TBS thinly sliced toasted almonds (I did not use)
Soak the apricots overnight in the water.
Place the soaked apricots and water in a heavy saucepan. Add the sugar and mix.
Over high heat, stir the mixture until it comes to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Uncover, raise the heat to high again. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken and the apricots fall apart. This will take a while (almost 20 minutes for me). You can also slice the apricots as you do it with your spoon.
Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and almond extracts and the optional liquor and almonds.
Pastry
I will not go into detail about the Rich Flan Pastry recipe. It was too sticky and fragile for me to use it. I thought it was because she says not to refrigerate it - I find that very odd. So, perhaps I handled the pastry too much. Anyway, here is a great pastry recipe that is not only fool-proof but also very delicious. Sorry Maida!
*2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
* 1/2 cup ice water
Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. When ready to use, roll out on a floured board. Line a pie pan (or tart pan) with half the dough and set aside the remainder to use as a top crust.
Glaze (applied to top of tart before baking)
Beat together:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp water
Apricot Glaze (applied after baking and tart has cooled)
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 tsp water
Bring the mixture to a boil and brush over the top of the tart.
Baking
Preheat the oven to 375 and butter a 9 1/2 x 3/4 inch flan ring. Place the flan ring on an ungreased cookie sheet. Adjust your oven racks with the bottom rack one third from the bottom and the second rack in the center of the oven.
Spoon the apricot mixture into the pastry shell. Cover with the other half of the pastry. Pinch the two crusts together around the perimeter with your fingers. Cut off the dough that rises over the top of the pan. Cut some slits along the top of the crust. Apply the glaze with a pastry brush.
The additional dough can be used for decorative strips or other embellishments (I have a little dough cutter that cuts in the shape of leaves - really cute!)
Bake on the bottom rack for 30 minutes at 375. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and move the tart to the center rack. Bake an additional 20-30 minutes until the top is browned slightly.
After baking, carefully remove the tart from the flan ring and allow to cool.
Brush with apricot glaze. Serve with vanilla ice cream!
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