Apricot Almond Tart

A lovely tart made with summer apricots and a decadent frangipane and custard filling.

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Keyword Almond, Apricot, Tart

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Chilling 6 hours

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings people

Calories 602kcal

In a food processor, add flour, sugar and salt and pulse to combine.
Add in the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
Add in the egg yolks, one at a time, pulsing until the mixture looks like wet sand. It will hold together when you press it in your hands.
Dump the dough onto the counter and form it into a disk.
Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour. Dough can be made up to 2 days in advance. Let soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.
Roll out pastry between two sheets of parchment until the dough is large enough to fit the tart pan with some overhang, about 1/8 inch thick.
Transfer the dough to tart pan with removable bottom. You cause either one 11-inch round pan, or two rectangular tart pans (13x4x1 inches)
Trim dough overhang to 1/2 inch; fold in and press, forming double thick sides.
Dock the bottom of the tart shell with a fork.
Freeze crust until firm; about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Gently place a piece of parchment in the tart shell and fill with pie weights. Make sure there’s enough overhand to cover the sides. This will help prevent it from browning too much during this initial bake.
Blind bake the crust for 15 mins with pie weights inside. Then, remove the weights and bake for another 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Pour milk into small saucepan.
Scrape in the seeds from vanilla bean; add bean.
Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and almond extract.
Gradually and slowly, whisk hot milk mixture into yolk mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan.
Whisk over medium heat until custard thickens and boils, about 2 minutes.
Discard vanilla bean.
Transfer custard to a bowl and place plastic wrap directly onto surface of custard; cover and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours. ** see note
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Combined powdered sugar, butter, egg and salt in a small bowl.
Add in almond slices and mix to combine well.
Add this mixture to the cooled custard and mix until well combined.
Pour into chilled crust; smooth top.
Arrange apricot halves, round side up, on top of the filling.
Sprinkle with sliced almonds.
Bake tart until filling is set and golden, about 45 minutes ***see note.
Remove from oven.
Brush with honey or agave and return to the oven for 3 minutes.
Cool tart completely in pan.
Serve chilled or at room temperature.

The Pastry recipe makes enough for one 11-inch tart crust. It will also make enough for 2-13x4x1 rectangle tart pans.
*Vanilla beans are expensive, so feel free to use 1 tsp of vanilla extract instead. Add the vanilla at the step as the almond extract.
**To get your custard to chill faster, spread out into a 9 inch pie plate. This will give the custard ore surface area exposed to the cold air in the fridge and will chill much faster.
***Baking time will vary depending on the size of the tart pan you’re using. An 11-inch tart will take 50-60 minutes, but check regularly to see if the filling is set. A smaller rectangular pan can take 35-45 minutes. Again, check regularly to see if filling is set.