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This Blackberry Sweet Apricot Tart recipe is a summer time favorite. Simple, easy, light and very satisfying—this tart is a perfect way to enjoy apricot season. It makes a fabulous dessert for a BBQ or potluck, and a treat with your morning coffee the next day.
I love my summer tarts on the light side, so there’s no cream, egg or custard base here—just pure fresh fruit bliss! And if you’re thinking you can’t make a tart from scratch, I’ve included a step by step tutorial for my favorite tart crust—so there’s no excuse to ever miss out on this recipe!
It’s no secret, I have a sweet tooth. A really essential one. I try to stay healthy, eat well, balance my lifestyle, etc..which is all good, really good..but..when it comes to dessert or my coffee treat, I don’t skimp.
It almost feels like I work hard on balancing my meals JUST so I can have that precious sweet moment in my life lol but before your turn away, I’m not a heavy dessert type person. So overly sweet things, overly buttered, overly creamed, overly anything treats are not really my thing.
I love making all my desserts on the balanced side, and love that I don’t feel heavy after enjoying them. Now go ahead keep reading, you’ll enjoy I promise 😉
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So what’s the big fuss about making pies and tarts from scratch? Ok for the record and to relieve you, this recipe works perfectly fine with store bought puff pastry. There you go.
But, also for the record, a homemade pie crust is MUCH easier than you think with my super magic secret technique 🙂 I teach this all the time at my cooking classes, and I can’t tell you how everyone who follows along to finish the recipe is impressed they actually DID make pie dough from scratch.
And the truth is, it might not look perfect the first time but it will taste amazing—and by the second or third time, you’ll have absolute pie crust perfection—look, taste and texture! And that’s a promise 🙂
Ok here’s how it goes, measure out your flour, sugar and pinch of salt in a bowl. FREZZE your butter ahead of time (here’s the magic tip) and then grate the frozen butter into that flour mixture and fluff it with a fork to coat them together for 1 second.
Then dump in some cold water and fluff it more with a fork. Clump the dough in your hands, if it holds together it’s done, if not add another tablespoon of water, fluff with the fork and try clumping it again. Then wrap it in a plastic wrap, chill it for 30 minutes, roll it out and you’ve MADE it!!
To break this down—instead of fussing with a food processor figuring out if the butter is soft enough, hard enough, broken down enough or not, and instead of using your fingers or tools to break down the butter into the flour and trying to work evenly and quickly without melting the butter.. all these ifs and buts are demystified by using frozen butter which is grated in perfect EQUAL sizes and then evenly coated with flour in a second using a fork.
That’s like eliminating 90% of failed pie crust issues. All you’re left to deal with is the rolling part. I think rolling is only a challenge if you haven’t rolled any dough before, others you should be just fine 🙂 If you want to eliminate the rolling part, then simply take this messy looking dough when it’s ready and divide it into 4 clumps.
Take one clump at a time and press it down on your pie plate, spreading it to fill a quarter of the space, and continue to fully press the entire dough to cover up the entire tart pan, then chill it.
Once your tart dough is ready, let’s talk about the filling. It’s all about apricots in this blackberry sweet apricot tart. I chose apricots because they’re one of my favorites, but peach and apples make a great substitute. Then I paired them with blackberry.
Love blackberries, and love this combo. Also, blackberries in general are great for baking because they’re sturdier than other berries, so they hold on to their texture after baking—they don’t go into mush. Blueberries would be my second pick, but feel free to use your favorite or make this entirely with apricots.
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To keep this apricot tart really light, I skipped any cream, eggs or custard base. That’s because apricots are very juicy and when they bake, this sweet juice feels like a luscious sweet fruity cream sauce on its own.
So to up the flavor and help thicken that apricot sauce during baking, I make a simple mix of very little flour, sugar, cinnamon and a teaspoon of butter. Half of this mix is sprinkled at the bottom of the pie crust, apricots are layered over it and then the remaining half is topped over the apricots.
This magic mix does a few things, the flour helps thicken the apricot juices and make it feel like a sauce, it also helps bind the fruit together and to the crust. The cinnamon is for pure flavor ( think of chai spice, ginger, or simply vanilla if you want to substitute cinnamon).
The sugar sweetens the apricot juice, and forms a nice delicate crunch on top of the apricots. And butter, well it’s for flavor and it adds a creamy feel to the sauce.
When done, this luscious sweet apricot tart is sprinkled with slivered almonds and served either warm or chilled. Be sure not to cut the tart while it’s still hot, it will breakdown completely.
It’s best to let it cool down, the juices will thicken up more, the delicate sugar crunch will harden a bit more and the tart will be more intact. I personally love this sweet apricot tart warm with vanilla ice cream, while my hubby loves it cold, so try both and let me know which is your favorite 🙂 Enjoy!
- u]For the Sweet tart crust:[/u] ( or use store bought puff pastry)
- 1¼ cups of flour
- ¼ cup of sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 stick of frozen butter
- ⅓ cup-1/2 cup (max) of cold water
- For the Fruits:
- 4-6 large apricots, pitted and thinly sliced
- 1 cup of blackberries
- For the Flour Mix:
- 3 Tablespoons of flour
- 3 Tablespoons of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of soft butter
- Slivered almonds for sprinkling.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Prepare the pie crust or use store bought pastry. To prepare the pie crust ( see photos above), In a bowl measure out the flour, sugar and pinch of salt.
- Take the frozen stick of butter and grate it (using a large box hole grater) into that flour mixture and fluff it with a fork to coat them together for 1 second.
- Then add in ⅓ cup of cold water and fluff it more with a fork. Clump the dough in your hands, if it holds together it’s done, if not add another tablespoon of water, fluff with the fork and try clumping it again until the dough clumps in your hand ( don’t wait for it to clump using the fork because it will take too much water and this will affect the flakiness of the pastry).
- Then wrap it in a plastic wrap and chill it for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the pastry over a floured surface to an 11 inch circle and it in a 9 inch circular tart pan. Chill the tart dough for 10 minutes will you prepare the fruit and flour mixture.
- Prepare the fruit.
- In a bowl mix the flour mixture together using a fork.
- Take out the chilled crust, sprinkle half of the flour mixture at the bottom of the crust, top it with the fruit slices, and sprinkle the remaining flour mixture over the fruit.
- bake the tart for 35-45 minutes (depending on your oven) until the crust is golden, the fruit is soft and bubble.
- Allow the tart to cool down for 30 minutes before cutting and serving it warm. Or chill it in the fridge for 2 hours and serve it cold. Enjoy!