I had mentioned in 16-24: French Chocolate Cake that it was one of two desserts that I made for a recent baby shower I attended: 16-39: Apricot Tart was the second dessert. I’ve been meaning to make this thing since near the start of this project, and it only took me a few years to finally get around to it. There’s something about this recipe and procrastination, though–this entry’s been sitting in my writing queue half-finished for over a month.
For the length of time that it took me to make it (and to write about it), I never even got to try it–I ended up leaving this and 16-24: French Chocolate Cake still wrapped up on the table at the party. We’ll just assume that both of them were delicious and everyone ate every last crumb of them.
This one states that it can be served warm or cold, so I made this one the morning of the party (16-24: French Chocolate Cake was made the night before and chilled overnight in the fridge to achieve a firm outer chocolate shell). I also made some guacamole (upon request), but you’re on your own for a recipe for that one–I make mine how my father and mis amigos from my restaurant days taught me. Here’s a hint: start with fresh pico de gallo, add lots of mashed avocadoes, adjust seasonings and spices from there.
Ingredients. I subbed LF milk for the half-and-half because I was NOT about to buy a brand new thing of half-and-half for 2 tbsp. I got a HELL of a deal on that bag of almond flour there–it must have been mistakenly marked down or something, because when I plucked it out of the Sprouts clearance bin and trotted it up to the front, the checker looked it over a few times and looked suspicious, but rang it through.
Multitasking–melting butter on the burner (I did finally replace that butter melter, but it’s not reflected in the pictures yet) while I keep my coffee warm on the preheated stove.
You did well up until the end, ancient butter melter. You’ll probably become a very small planter in the near future. Probably after I somehow plug the burgeoning holes that made it a poor butter melter.
Making dough in the stand mixer because I was too lazy to do it by hand or to get out the food processor.
Eh, good enough. You want it crumbly–that’s what makes a good crust for this type of tart.
Tamping it down with my tart tamper. I’m not one for one-purpose tools, but I’ve already used this thing like 10 times and I’ve only had it a year or two. I feel like I made my $10 back on it.
Tamped, forked, and ready for the oven.
Cooling on the top of the toaster oven (which makes a good cooling rack when it’s not just been used) while I make the filling. It did poof up a little while baking, but the fork holes help to counter that. Simply Delicious advises making a rim of foil to keep the sides up (and also advises using pie weights when pre-baking crusts in other recipes), but I did none of those things and I think it’s okay.
In the interest of reducing the amount of dishes to do, I washed and reused the stand mixer to make the filling.
Cracked the egg right into the creamed sugar and butter. Probably something I should have beaten before I added it in, but time was ticking and I was on a deadline.
Measured out the 6 oz. of almond flour–it’s roughly 3/4 of a cup (if you go by weight/measurement conversions).
Threw it into the filling with the remaining ingredients.
I’ll admit–I feel like I made way too much filling. I vaguely remember having too much and just going for it, but I don’t quite remember how I got there. I suppose you can never have too much filling–let’s just hope it baked all the way through.
Here’s a tip from me to you: don’t rinse the apricot halves once you pull them out of the can–most of them will fall apart and then your tart will look like this.
I should have maybe just used the microplane and done a regular grating or even peeled the lemon and cut fine strips off of it, but instead I chose to use the fancy zester for lemon peel curls. Good idea in theory, not great in practice.
Here’s the peels–they ended up looking a bit strange later on once I placed them on the tart.
Baked the apricots into the tart as instructed–it might have looked less explode-y had I used the appropriate amount of filling. At least the butchering of the apricot halves is less apparent now.
Glazed the tart while it was still in the pan (I wasn’t ready to negotiate trying to get it out of there yet).
Close-up of the glazing and lemon peels. I don’t think they turned out the way I thought they were going to–it kind of just looks like I dropped it upside down on some yellow shag carpeting.
Final look before I wrapped it up for the party. I think overall it came out okay–I was even able to get it out of the tart pan in one piece and onto its makeshift party platter (a piece of cardboard wrapped in foil). It looked decent–I hope it tasted that way too. Apricots in general aren’t really my jam (get it?), but if you like apricots or are looking for something different to bring to a party, give this one a try.
Grade: B+
