Apricot And Roasted Hazelnuts Tart
After my french strawberry tart recipe, here is another way to make a tart, with a sweet pastry dough and an egg batter. It is garnished with fresh apricots and crushed roasted hazelnuts. Of course, you can use different fruits and nuts : peaches and pistachios, apples and almonds… Be creative!
This is my favorite sweet pastry dough recipe
It is buttery and crunchy, with a light almond taste. You can make it the day before and store it in the fridge, covered with saran wrap.
When making the dough, the most important thing is that the butter and egg are at room temperature. Too cold, you’ll end up with chunks of butter and won’t be able to combine the dough properly. If this happens and you own a blow torch, warm up the outside of the bowl, while mixing. Move the flame slowly around the bowl, and don’t over heat it as you don’t want the butter to melt, or the egg to cook.
I always blind-bake pies for 10 minutes to prevent them from getting soggy. For that, I place two pieces of saran wrap on top of the dough, in a cross shape and pour dried beans on top of it. Then I cover the beans with the edges of the saran wrap. The saran wrap is not going to burn as long as it’s not in contact with the metal. You can also use parchment paper. I always reuse the same beans, for that only purpose, and keep them in a sealed jar.
The batter requires egg yolks
I know that sometimes we struggle to find what to do with the leftover egg whites. The first good news is that you can freeze them, the second is that I have recipes that contains egg whites. Oatmeal pancakes, pavlovas, tiger financiers… Take a look in the search bar!
For the hazelnuts, you really want to remove the skin as leaving it would give a bitter taste to the tart
To do so, you need to roast them in the oven, to make the skin crack. Then, you’ll just have to rub them between the palm of your hands for the skin to come off. Don’t worry if there is a bit left, there are always some rebellious ones!
I scraped half a vanilla bean for the batter
Vanilla is so precious, don’t throw away the bean after scraping. Instead, dry, blend and mix it with sugar to make your own vanilla sugar.
If you don’t have any vanilla beans, use vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract.
I cut the apricots in four,
but there is no rule, it’s really how you prefer, halves, cubes, slices… My only tip is to leave the center empty so that you have a nicer cut when serving the tart.
You can keep the tart in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for a few months.
Apricot and roasted hazelnuts tart
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Ingredients
Sweet pastry dough
- ⅓ cup +1 tbsp sugar 100 g
- ⅔ cup butter 150 g – room temperature
- ¼ heaping tsp salt 2 g
- ½ cup almond flour 50 g
- 1 egg 50 g – room temperature
- 1⅔ cups flour 250 g
Vanilla and Hazelnut Batter
- 1 cup heavy cream 250 g
- 2 big eggs 120 g
- 3 egg yolks 60 g
- ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp sugar 100 g
- ½ cup whole hazelnuts 70 g
- 2 tsp flour 10 g
- ½ vanilla bean scraped
10 to 12 apricots
Instructions
Sweet pastry dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar with the paddle.
- Add the salt and almond flour and mix until combined.
- Pour in the egg, mix until combined.
- Lastly add the flour and mix until just combined. Don't over mix as you don't want the gluten to develop.
- Cover the dough with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Vanilla and hazelnut batter
- Start by roasting the hazelnuts.Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.Roast for 8 minutes, the skin needs to start cracking.Wait five minutes for it to cool down a bit and remove the skin. To do so, take a handful and rub the hazelnuts against your palms.Crush roughly with a knife or a stand blender.
- Mix the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar until combined. Add the cream and the vanilla. Lastly the flour and the crushed hazelnuts. Keep in the fridge.
Baking and assembling the tart
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Work the dough on a lightly floured surface until it comes together. Roll out with a rolling pin and place it on top of the pie pan.
- Push into the pie pans. Remove the exceed of dough with the rolling pin.
- Press the dough into the side and remove the exceed with a knife.
- Prick the bottom with a fork.
- Place two pieces of saran, in a cross shape, on top of the pie, pour some dried beans and close the saran wrap. Making sure that it is not in contact with the metal of the pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 350°F.
- In the meantime, rinse, dry and cut the apricots.
- Remove the beans from the top of the pies by simply lifting the saran wrap without touching the hot beans.
- Place the apricots nicely on top of the crust. Whisk quickly the batter and pour on top of the apricots.
- Bake for 50 minutes for the small tarts and 1h for the big one.
- Wait for it to cool down before unmolding.
