When summer is in full swing, this tart makes an economical dessert, picnic or coffee time treat. Apricots are especially good this time of the year and make a great alternative to strawberries.
Ingredients
Pastry Base
- 9” Tart tin
- 250g plain flour
- 60g chilled and cubed butter or margarine
- 60g cubed lard
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 4 tbsp cold water (approx)
Filling
- 12 apricots
- 4 tbsp sugar
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 tbsp warmed apricot jam
Method
Filling
- Slice apricots in half and remove stone.
- Place in a bowl and sprinkle with 4tbsp sugar.
- Squeeze over the lemon juice and put to one side whilst preparing pastry tart.
Pastry Base
If you’re feeling lazy you can skip the first few step and buy a pre-cooked tart case instead.
- Sieve the flour and add the cubed butter/margarine and lard.
- Rub into the flour with fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Mix in caster sugar
- Gradually mix in sufficient water until mixture forms lumps and leaves the sides of the bowl cleanly.
- Knead dough lightly on a lightly floured table. Wrap in film and leave to rest in refrigerator for 30 mins.
- Roll out pastry and line tin.
- Bake blind in oven 180C/160Fan/Gas 4. (To bake blind, prick base with a fork an then line pastry with greaseproof paper and weigh down with ceramic beans or uncooked pasta) Bake for 10 minutes. Carefully remove paper and beans.
- Using some of the warmed apricot jam, with a pastry brush gently brush the base of the pastry.
- Arrange apricots around the tart, and spread any remaining sugar and lemon juice over the top of the apricots. Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. The pastry should be nutty brown in colour and the apricots soft and slightly caramelised.
- Glaze the tart by gently brushing the remaining warmed apricot jam over the top of the apricots.
- Serve warm with your choice of clotted cream, crème fraiche or ice cream.
- This tart is best eaten warm as once it is cooled, the base has a tendency to become soggy.