Apricot-Raspberry Rustic Tartlets

Sometimes I think I need to have my head examined.  The only reason this recipe is being posted today is because a tweep asked me to post it.  Why it never occurred to me to post a recipe for this is totally a mystery.  Duh!  I’m a food blogger.  I’m supposed to share this stuff with you, right?

Why wouldn’t you want a recipe for a summery pastry with crust that crisply crackles at pressure from the fork, flakes likes nobody’s business, and then melts into buttery delight around the sweet-tart fruit filling as you take your first bite?  I mean, really.

If you follow me at all, you know that I like my fruit desserts to stay clearly this side of sickly-sweet.  For me, the point is to taste the love the farmer has for the crop, not the sugar.  Give me the pure essence of sunshine.  Let the interplay of crisp brown crust, buttery softness, sharp fruit tang, and thickened sweet juices cascade over my lips and into my mouth.  And if it’s in the guise of a looker, like this one is?  It’s all mine, baby.  I’m only sharing ‘cuz you asked nicely.

Apricot-Raspberry Rustic Tartlets
(makes 8 tartlets)

Ingredients
1 recipe tart dough (recipe follows below)
3/8 cup almond meal or almond flour*
3/8 cup sugar
4 ripe apricots, roughly 10 ounces
8 ounces washed and well-drained raspberries, roughly 1 1/3 cups
8 teaspoons coarse sugar (I use raw or Demerara)
2 teaspoons milk, half and half, or cream

*If you don’t have almond meal, you can throw some raw or blanched almonds into your food processor and pulse until they are finely diced, but stop before they have turned into almond butter!  Measure out 3 tablespoons and mix with 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour.  Use this mixture in place of the almond meal.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or non-stick pad.  Place an oven rack in the middle position of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together the 3/8 cup almond meal or almond flour and the 3/8 cup sugar.  Set aside.

Divide tart dough into 8 equal pieces.  On lightly floured surface, roll each piece out to an approximate 6 inch circle and transfer to prepared baking sheet.

Spoon 1½ tablespoons of the almond meal/sugar mixture into the middle of each circle of dough, leaving a 1½ inch border.  Cut each apricot into 8 slices and place four slices on each dough circle, on top of the almond meal mixture.  Sprinkle an equal amount of raspberries over the apricots on each tart.

Spoon 1 teaspoon coarse sugar over the fruit mixture on each tart.  Fold the tart edges up to partially cover the filling, leaving only a small amount of fruit showing – the dough will relax out and down while baking.

Brush the exposed portion of the pastry with the milk or cream.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown.  Cool on a rack.  The fruit juices will thicken as the tarts cool.

Tart Dough Recipe
(adapted from a million sources that said to use the ratio of 1 cup flour to 1 stick of butter for great crust, and they were right!)

Ingredients
1½ cups all-purpose flour (spooned into the measuring cup and then leveled)
Pinch of salt
1½ sticks of cold unsalted butter (6 oz. or 12 tablespoons), cut into ½-inch pieces
1/3 cup ice water

Place flour and salt in food processor* and pulse.  Add the cold butter, and pulse until butter is the size of small peas.  Sprinkle ice water over the mixture and process for about 5 seconds, or until the mixture is moistened and starts to clump.  Dump the mixture onto a lightly floured surface (or onto parchment or plastic wrap) and squish with the heel of your hand two or three times, until it can be gathered into one large clump and it sticks together.

If your dough has warmed a bit, stick it (covered) in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before using it in the tart above.  If it does not feel warm and sticky, proceed right away.  I always cool it before rolling it, because then I don’t have to use as much extra flour to keep it from sticking – this results in a more tender crust.

*Tart dough can also be made without a food processor, by using a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour.  And lately, truthfully, I have been doing it all by hand, as I have learned so much that way.  I use my (admittedly always cold) fingertips to squish the butter cubes into the flour.  Then I roll the dough/butter mixture back and forth between the fingertips of both hands, while “fluffing” the mixture occasionally.  I stop when some butter particles are the size of coarse cornmeal, and others are the size of small pebbles.  I’ve been getting exceptionally tender crust this way!

Tagged as: apricot-raspberry, fruit dessert, pasrty dough recipe, rustic tart recipe, summer