I love when a dessert makes me look a more skilled baker than I really am. Puff pastry will do that for you. It’s a store-bought, frozen sheet of thinly layered pastry dough. Painstakingly simple to use, but boy, does it look sophisticated. Puff pastry covers the bottom of this tart. The other side is half-cut apricots covering the bottom of a cake pan filled with a simple honey caramel. Looks like a mosaic, but requires far less finesse.
I started by prepping the apricots, cutting them in half length-wise, so they were ready to place in the caramel as soon as it was ready. Alison says to use “1lb. apricots (5-6 apricots),” but I ended up needing about 1.15 lbs (10-12 apricots) to fill my cake pan. Alison must have access to really big apricots.
The caramel made me a little nervous. I don’t have a ton of experience making it, so I’m not the best judge of color and viscosity. Thankfully, I was on the phone with my pal Margaret while I made it, and she coached me on what to look for. My caramel was taking longer than Alison’s instructions, but Margaret assured me that working towards the dark amber color is more important than the amount of time it takes to get there. Once the caramel seemed thick enough and gave off an amber hue, I poured it to cover the bottom of a 10-inch cake pan. You can use a 9-inch pan, too.
I quickly placed the apricots, cut-side down, over the caramel. Then I loosely covered them in the puff pastry sheet. I trimmed the edges so it came up about an inch on the inside of the pan. According to Margaret, the key here is a loose draping of the pastry, as if it were a blanket and you were tucking the apricots in for a nap. Let the blanket lightly rest over the fruit. Tucking them in too tight will only make ‘em uncomfortable and want to burst out of bed.
The pan bakes for about an hour total at two different temps – the higher one to bake the pastry, the lower one to bake the fruit. I made this tart a few hours ahead of serving so the caramel hardened in the pan before I could flip it over. To remedy, I stuck the pan back in the oven at 375 for 5 minutes. The caramel loosened and the tart became easy to flip onto a plate. I covered the top with toasted, chopped pistachios and served it on its own. Ice cream or whip cream would have done nicely, but I didn’t have the energy. Plus, the tart on its own is perfectly wonderful.
Just a friendly reminder that June is apricot season. Trader Joe’s sells them by the pound for $3.29! If you’re planning to make this recipe too, may I suggest you make it in the next two weeks?
Oh, and feel free to call me if you want to chat about the color of your caramel!
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