Friday 27 June 2008

Apricot cream tart, My best dessert ever?...

Last week I made what I think is my best ever dessert, I didn't set out to make it but I couldn't resist a whole bagful of fresh apricots for £1! there was probably 4lbs of fruit which is way more than we could eat so... My Dad made some jam which is really good, and I made an Apricot tart.
The recipe is loosely based on Rick Stein's redcurrant tart that was in Sainsbury's magazine. I changed the redcurrants for apricots and made an almond pastry as it goes so well with apricot, the filling is a custard filling made with double cream, eggs, icing sugar and a real vanilla pod. First I made the pastry, it's a simple all butter shortcrust recipe to which I added a little sugar and almond extract, this was blind baked to make the case.
The filling is made from half a pint a double cream, 2 eggs, 5oz sugar and vanilla. The apricots were stoned and halved, placed in rings in the pastry case, I then poured in my custard mixture and baked it in a low oven for about an hour.
The result is a dessert that not only looks brilliant but tastes great, the flavours were perfectly balanced and it was just the right level of sweet and a contrasting sharpness from the fruit, the pastry was crisp and delicious. Overall it was perfect!
This would be fantastic to take to a bring and share lunch which is what I plan to do.

1 comment:

Hopie said...

Looks delicious! Apricots and almonds are definitely a good match :-)