You'll love this Crostata ~ also known as an Italian baked dessert tart!!!
One of my all time favorites ~ Apricot Huckleberry Tart!
First it's important to find just the right sweet, ripe apricots! When my friend, Lynn was cooking tarts last summer at my home, she kept looking inside the oven...to see if the apricots were juicing up, which is how you know when a fruit tart is done. She is a little obsessed with her apricots, so in the summer, when she calls me and tells me the cots are ready to be picked, I know she knows what she's talking about. Because now I know an apricot tart is just about the apricots. So you guessed it... the apricots better be the best, and they better be cooked right! One fun and EASY things to do is freeze the delicious apricots that are picked in the summer, and make a beautiful tart on a cold January day!
Lynn uses Julia Child's sweet short dough ~ (recipe for 2 cups all-purpose flour)
2 cups all-purpose flour (scooped and leveled)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar (2 pinches)
1/4 lb (l stick) chilled butter cut into 1/2-inch bits
3 Tb chilled vegetable oil
A scant half cup of iced water, plus droplets more as needed.
Once you have the food processor out (if you're using one) and the counters all floured up, it's a great idea to make as much dough as you'll use for the next 2 months. But don't make the mistake of doubling the recipe. Make a batch of dough, and then make it again. And again. Making dough in small batches is key.
Roll out dough for the tart, refrigerate the dough that is fitted in your pan.
Using 8 to 10 fresh or frozen apricots (for a 8-10 inch pan) drop the fruit into the boiling water for 10 to 15 seconds. Peel, halve, and remove pits.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sugar in the bottom of the shell. If the fruit is sliced, arrange it over the sugar in a closely overlapping layers of circles. If it is halved, place the halves, domed side up, closely together in the bottom of the shell. Now, this where you can sprinkle a 1/2 cup of huckleberrys in the middle of the apricots. Spread on the rest of the sugar and dot with butter.
Bake in middle of preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit has colored lightly and the juices have become syrupy.
Slip the tart onto a rack. Decorate with slivered almonds.
Serve warm or cold. Enjoy my friends and keep warm!!!
xox Glad & Cel
