the seduction of fresh apricot tarts

I am not sure what happened to me in the supermarket, but when I saw the rosy blush of fresh apricots, I was lost.  Small, plump apricots, smooth and enticing, totally out of season - apricots, as far as I know, are not local to New Hampshire, at least not in June.   I know, I know.  I was seduced.

And so, I bought three, and made a delicious pair of tarts, puckery and overlaid with the sweetness of our beautiful local honey, sprinkled with toasted pecans and a pinch of nutmeg.  Perfection.

I used Orangette's tart dough recipe, and was very pleased with it, and tossed the apricots with a bit of orange juice, honey, nutmeg and salt, and a tablespoon of sugar, then drizzled them with our wonderful local honey, all good, all pleasing, and the end result?  A lovely dessert, missing only a tablespoon of whipped cream, because I had none, but it would have been the perfect ending.  

For the dough:

For crust:
4 Tbsp. ice water, plus more as needed
¾ tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
¾ tsp. salt
9 Tbsp. (4 ½ oz.) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

To prepare the crust:

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine 4 Tbsp. ice water and the cider vinegar. Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse to blend. Add the butter, and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal; there should be no pieces of butter bigger than a large pea. With the motor running, slowly add the water-vinegar mixture, processing just until it forms a ball. If the dough seems a bit dry, add more ice water by the teaspoon, pulsing to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a wooden board or clean countertop, and gather it until it just holds together. Shape it into a disk about 1 ½ inches thick.   Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for two hours. 

Butter two four or five inch tart forms ( with removable bottoms) well.  Remove the dough from the fridge,  and cut the dough in half, storing the other half in the freezer for later.  Roll out the dough and press dough into tart pans, firmly pressing down into the tart pans, trimming off the excess.  Firm again with your fingertips.  Set aside, and preheat oven to 360F, then prepare the apricots.

For the fruit:

Three or four small apricots.
Cut the apricots in half, remove the stone, and cut each half apricot into 5 or 6 pieces.
Toss with :
1/4 cup white sugar
big pinch of nutmeg or mace
big pinch of kosher salt
3 T. orange juice
2 tablespoons chopped pecans

2 tablespoons local honey to drizzle

Toss the sugar, nutmeg, salt, and orange juice with the apricot slices.  Arrange the apricots in a circular fashion around the tart form.  Top with pecans.   Drizzle with a tablespoon of honey on each tart, and set in the oven for 40 minutes or so.  Remove to cool for 30 minutes, remove from tart pans,  then cut into halves and serve as is, or with whipped cream.  Serves four.

Total bliss.  Enjoy!

strawberry tartlets (the dud) and my little dove

I was so excited when I went to the swap shop at our dump on Saturday - I found these dear little tart pans tied up with green twine, and a pretty saucer.  You had a feeling the person who lovingly dropped them off had cherished them.  But, we all are decluttering, and I would imagine tart pans might be one of those unused kitchen things that go reluctantly into the Swap Shop box for the dump.

Sunday night I made a nut crust from a Martha Stewart book, but halved it, as I only wanted a few.  Stuck it in the fridge, and yesterday prepared the tartlet pans.  Into the oven, let cool, and....disaster.  They would not unmold.  I took a tiny sharp knife to the edges and they shattered into buttery crumbs.  I had one out of nine that remained more or less whole.  Mostly less.

Today I tried again, with the last half of the dough, but this time I greased every ridge carefully, and did the bottom twice.  Chilled, then baked and....again.  Disaster.  Again, one survived.  All I can think is that somehow in making half a recipe, I made a mistake, because Martha's recipes are usually pretty foolproof.

This dessert was based on one I used to make with cream puffs.  I used the cranberry and dark cherry jelly I made a few weeks ago to glaze the berries, heating just until the jelly melted, then using a teaspoon to drizzle on the fresh strawberries. With the cream puffs, I dolloped whipped cream on top, but this dessert was to be a little plainer, because of the rich nut crust.  The surviving tarts were delicious, but clearly something went wrong when you lose 80% of your desserts.

In the meantime, Spring has sprung !  I have a sweet little mourning dove pair that hang around, sometimes both, but often just one.  The daffodils have wilted in the hot (HOT!) afternoons, but the violets are sprinkling the lawn with their beautiful color.  Hard to believe two weeks ago I was still filling the woodstove at night.  Enjoy these beautiful days!