Roasted Apricot Tartlettes
makes about a dozen

(This roasting method works with just about any stone fruit. Try it with peaches, nectarines, or plums.)

15 small apricots
granulated sugar, as much as needed to cover the bottom of your roasting pan

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 sticks (8 oz. butter)
1 cup (8 oz) cream cheese

For the egg wash:
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Optional turbinado sugar (some times seen as “Sugar in the Raw” brand) for sprinkling


1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Generously sprinkle enough granulated sugar to cover the bottom of a roasting pan.

3. Slice the apricots in half along their natural indentation and pit them. Lay them out face down on the sugar coated roasting pan.

4. Roast in the preheated 375°F oven. You want them to soften up a little and get juicy. Time usually depends on how ripe and soft they are to begin with. Mine were rock hard and spent 15 minutes in the oven. Halfway through baking flip them with a spoon. Remove from the oven and let cool. (You can save the syrup. It’s crazy delicious. Flavor iced tea, or drizzle over the tarts themselves.)

5. While the apricots are roasting, make the dough. Throw the flour into a bowl. Cut up the butter into small cubes and throw it in too. Next, scoop the cream cheese into the bowl. Cut up everything with a pastry cutter (or get in there with your hands.) You’ll still need to give the dough a few turns with your hands. Knead until it comes together.

6. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for an hour (you can also make it the day before.) This firms it up to make the rolling easier and relaxes the gluten in the dough.

7. Now, preheat your oven to 350°F.

8. To roll the dough: Generously flour a large surface. Then flour the top of the dough. It’s quite a sticky bugger. As you’re rolling, rotate the dough 90° every couple of presses of the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking. Try to work quickly. This dough gets stickier as it becomes warmer. Keep flouring as needed.

9. Cut out rounds about 4″ in diameter. I had a wide-mouthed glass, but a large cookie cutter, or even an empty carton of, say, cottage cheese or yogurt would work.

10. Move the rounds to a sheet pan. If they stick to your surface, scrape them up carefully with a spatula.

11. Load them up with apricot halves. I used 2 per circle.

12. Pinch one side closed, then the other two sides to make a triangle.

13. Make an egg wash by whisking together the egg and milk. This will give the tartlettes an attractive golden color. Brush each tart. If you’re so inclined, sprinkle each tart with turbinado sugar.

14. Stick them in the freezer for 15 minutes to allow the fats in the dough to firm up.

15. Bake them in a preheated 350°F oven. Mine took about 30 minutes. Don’t go by time. Go by color. You want them golden. This may take as much as 45 minutes.


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URL to original: https://www.pastrypal.com/2009/07/apricots-tamed/

Copyright © Irina Kogan. All rights reserved.