Back at the beginning of October, I managed to snap up about 3 kilograms of fresh apricot at the local market, clearly the last of the lasts of the season and since they were dirt cheap, I assumed they were clearly surplus. It’s odd that they were still available in October in London, but I was happy to get my hands on them anyway. I love rescuing fruits and veggies in larger quantities and then just getting a bit adventurous with baking and cooking and trying new recipes with them.
We ate half of them but they were not so nice anymore and were getting a bit old. So I had to think about ways to use them up. I wasn’t really feeling the jam making process, I thought they were better to use them in a lovely apricot tart. This is a classic recipe, so it does contain eggs and dairy.
So, I made this French Apricot – Frangipane tart with them. Needless to say it was gone within a day, and the kids didn’t even touch it, so I must have eaten half of it on my own when still warm. This is a seriously delicious French pastry, don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Frangipane is a sweet filling made from or flavoured with almonds. This filling can be used in a variety of ways including cakes and such pastries. Sometimes it’s only the almond extract that is added to the custard filling but the original is made with ground almond.
It seems like a big baking job, but if you follow this recipe, it’s a guaranteed success. It only takes long because of the twice half an hour chilling time of the crust pastry, but apart from that, the rest is easily done by a food processor and the oven. And when it’s done it is a show stopper both in its looks and in flavours.
Enjoy.
Apricot Frangipane Tart is a classic French recipe with juicy fresh apricots and creamy . almond frangipane.
- 10 ripe apricots
- 185 g all purpose flour
- 75 g soft brown sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 125 g salted butter (room temperature) if you have unsalted butter only, add 1/4 tsp salt to the dough
- 120 g ground almond
- 100 g soft brown sugar
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 medium eggs
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 12 small/medium ripe apricots washed and halved, if too big, cut them into quarters
- 3 tbsp maple syrup or honey
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Preheat oven to 175 Celsius.
Wash the apricots, remove stones and cut them into halves. In a mixing bowl, combine them with the maple syrup until they are all covered. Be gentle, make sure you don't mash them.
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Prepare the crust. I just placed everything into the food processor and whizzed it until the dough formed. Then place it into the fridge for 30 minutes to chill. Save the plastic wrap simply use a Tupperware kind of container.
Roll out your pastry dough on a floured surface and then place in an 11” (25-30cm) loose-bottomed tart tin, pressing it into the sides. Chill again for 30 mins.
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In the meantime, prepare the frangipane. Measure out the ingredients into a mixing bowl.
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Then, simply just combine them with a whisker. Set it aside.
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Spoon the frangipane into the crust and smooth the top all over with the back of your spoon.
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Poke the apricots into the frangipane, spacing them evenly.
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Bake for about 40-45 minutes depending on your oven, just keep checking. The top of the tart should be lightly firm and warm golden.
Leave the tart cool in the tin for 10 minutes before slicing it up or transferring it.
It's equally nice warm and at room temperature. Enjoy.
