Cooking brings out the apricot’s wonderful sharp sweetness, and it is perfectly paired with a frangipane filling.
Makes one 25cm tart
Ingredients
- 225g plain flour, plus extra to dust
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 165g cold butterCold water
- 110g butter
- 110g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp
- 2 eggs
- 110g ground almonds
- 25g plain flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- Zest of ½ lemon
- 9 medium apricots
- 20g flaked almonds
Method
To make the pastry, mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl or food processor, and then grate in the cold butter. Rub this into the flour, then stir in just as much cold water (about 1 tbsp should do it) as you need to bring it together into a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Grease a 25cm tart tin and roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until large enough to line the tin. Do so, then chill for another 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 200C. Line the pastry shell with baking paper and weigh down with baking beans or dried pulses. Bake for about 15 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake for another 5-7 minutes until golden. Take out of the oven and turn down the heat to 180C.
Meanwhile, make the frangipane. Cream together the butter and sugar, apart from the extra 1 tbsp, until fluffy, then beat in the eggs. Fold in the dry ingredients and zest and a pinch of salt. Cut the apricots in half, remove the stones, then cut all but one into wedges.
Spoon the frangipane into the pastry shell, then arrange the apricots in concentric overlapping circles on top. Cut the last in half and put one half, cut-side down, in the middle (you can eat the other; chef’s perk). Scatter with the remaining sugar and bake for about 30 minutes until golden, scattering over the almonds five minutes before the end, then allow to cool before removing from the tin.
