Apricot Tarte

Ingredients:

Pâte Sucrée (crust) - unbleached all-purpose flour, unsalted butter, egg yolk, sugar

Filling - organic apricots, whipping cream, honey, vanilla extract, almond extract, raw almonds, confectioner's sugar

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This tarte will make any home baker look like a pro in an instant. It looks so gorgeous and it truly is pretty effortless. The apricots do all the work for you. The key is really to get good quality apricots from either your best markets or local farmers. The season is still very early, so the apricots I used for this particular tarte turned out pretty tart and tangy. Although, super ripe, mushy apricots should not be used as they will not hold well in the oven.

You are look for firm, bright orange apricots (no green!) and these should do the trick. The pâte sucrée does take some work, but your food processor can do most of the mixing for you. The raw dough will be very crumbly, similar to a graham cracker crust which can be pressed into the tarte pan with your fingers. This dough will come out slightly different than a standard pie dough and is more similar to a cookie consistency (as opposed to a flaky pie crust consistency).

A french tarte pan with a removable bottom is of course a must! It's necessary to blind bake the crust first before adding the filling, lining the bottom of the tarte with ground almonds beforehand to keep the bottom of the tarte from getting soggy. After about 15 minutes, remove the empty tarte shell (do not unmold yet!) and add the filling and top with the halved and pitted apricots.

You can find a similar recipe here if you want to try this at home (inspired by the petit café à Paris qui s'appelle Verlet).