stone fruit Archives - Page 6 of 6 - Passionate About Baking

“Do something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”

Julia Child

My first introduction to Julia Child came in Feb 2008 via the Daring Bakers challenge of her French Loaf, when I conquered my fear of yeast. Then last year, the film Julie & Julia ignited my love for French pastry, and in many way, most things French. The film won my heart for everything it offered – food, blogging, Paris, cookbooks; more so because I’m a huge fan of Meryl Streep. From my point of view, which might well be wrong, if it wasn’t for all that butter that makes French food as delicious as it is, I would have cooked my way through most of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by now. Last year, meeting these girls from France, Jamie and Pamela at the FBC in London, just made my love for French connections even deeper…

One hot summer afternoon, Googling for something to do with my basket of apricots, the search threw up fresh apricots in baking in so many different ways. There were cobblers, crisps, cakes; and then there was this charming recipe for Verlet’s Apricot Tart from The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris Of course I looked no further as I read the little introduction to the recipe … Verlet is a tiny tea and coffee shop that also serves good homemade pastries. Anyone who loves apricots will love this simple, homey pie. Be sure to use fresh, not canned, apricots.

Café Verleton Rue Saint-Honoré is a traditional French café that has been doing business since the late 19th century. They serve what most argue is the best cup of coffee in Paris. Among its other notable pleasures is this very rustic Apricot Tart. With a hint of almond to enhance the jammy apricots, this tart is so quintessentially French it’s hard not to dream about sitting at a table at Café Verlet while savoring each and every bite.

I made some minor changes to the recipe since heavy cream isn’t available here. I used low fat cream, increased the cornflour a wee bit, threw in some ground almonds left over from the tart shell, and substituted some buckwheat flour for a little all purpose flour in the shell. Be careful not to over bake the shell, or it gets over crisp.

The tart was delicious and full of summery goodness. A smooth, light and flavourful filling which complimented the fruit beautifully. Make sure you give it a good sifting of powdered sugar as soon as it’s baked, and again before serving. As with most fruit baked desserts which are best served warm, we enjoyed this cold too. Might be because of the incessantly hot weather we have these days, but a chilled slice was absolutely refreshing.

Verlet’s Apricot Tart … with peaches & cherries added
Adapted from Tarte Abricot Verlet from Epicurious.com
Recipe from Patricia Wells, The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris
For pastry
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour {or 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour}
2 tbsps finely ground unblanched almonds

For filling
200ml low fat cream {or half cup crème fraîche/heavy whipping cream}
1 large egg lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tbsps vanilla sugar {or full-flavored honey, such as lavender}
1 1/2 tbsps cornflour
2 tbsps almond meal {I has some left from above, so I added it}
About 500-600gms fresh stone fruit ,apricots & peaches, pitted and halved {do not peel}, and few fresh pitted cherries
Confectioners’ sugar, for garnish

Method:
Preheat the oven to 175C.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch (23cm) fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Set aside. {I used a 6″ fluted tart pan & two 3″fluted tart pans}

Pastry:

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and the sugar, and using a wooden spoon, stir to blend. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to form a soft, cookie-like dough. Transfer the dough to the center of the buttered pan. Using the tips of your fingers, evenly press the pastry along the bottom and up the sides of the pan. The pastry will be quite thin.

Place the pans in the center of the oven and bake unitl the dough is slightly puffy and set, 12 to 15 minutes. {The smaller ones are ready in 8-9 minutes}. Sprinkle the ground almonds over the bottom of the crust. {This will prevent the crust from becoming soggy.}

Meanwhile make the filling:

In a medium-size bowl, combine the cream, egg, extracts and sugar and whisk to blend. Whisk in the flour and almond meal {if using}.

Pour the filling evenly over the pastry. Starting just inside the edge of the pan, neatly overlap the halved apricots {cut side up} and sliced peaches, at an angle. Arrange in two or three concentric circles, working toward the center. Fill in the center with the remaining apricots, and pitted cherries..

Place the tart pan on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake until the filling is firm and the pastry is a deep golden brown, 55 to 60 minutes. The apricots will shrivel slightly. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Place the tart on a rack to cool. Sprinkle again with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

Woke up one morning to see that Passionate About Baking had been reviewed by Blog Revue. Thank you Danielle for the wonderful words. You can read about it here … Your Life Would Be More Interesting If You Had More Passion In It …

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India Latest post ‘Peach and Cherry Crisp … Baking With Stone Fruit!‘
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Tag: stone fruit

{Baking} VERLET’S APRICOT TART … with peaches & cherries too

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