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Fruit tarts have always been my favourite sweet thing. I’m not a big fan of ice cream or chocolate, but show me a fruit tart and I will probably jump straight to dessert. But if you want to make a proper classic tart, French style, it takes time. You can make the dough ahead of time and freeze it, but you still have to make the cream, wait for hours until it cools down, decorate with fruits, then glaze them with syrup… The whole process can keep you busy for a day from start to finish. Which I'm totally fine with, especially when I can listen to a couple of episodes of Home Cooking and laugh on my own in the kitchen. But what do you do when you don’t have those hours, but you still dream of a fruit tart with fresh seasonal fruit? You make a rustic fruit galette, because unlike her fancy French cousin, this one is from the country side, unsophisticated, rough, cool and forgiving.
August is the month of berries, peaches and apricots. I really want to make the best use of these gorgeous seasonal treats until the plums, apples and pears show up soon. Cooking and baking is so easy and straightforward when you just have a handy list of seasonal ingredients. Note to self: I keep on planning to order this poster and hang it in my kitchen, so this month will be the month.
Ingredients (for a 28 cm round galette)
250 g tart crust dough (for pâte sablée, I use this recipe from Dominique Ansel, but most of the time I buy a ready-made pâte brisée)
6-8 fresh apricots, ripe but not too soft
100 g butter, room temperature
3 eggs at room temperature (2 for the cream and 1 for the egg wash)
100 g ricotta cheese
110 g confectioners’ sugar (powder sugar)
100 g almond flour
50 g white flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
Vanilla essence
Optional
Fruit syrup to glaze the apricots. I used a combination of apricot jam and caramel syrup
Almond flakes to decorate the edges
Preparation
Step 1
Heat the oven at 180 degrees and have a 26-30 cm tart form ready. You don’t need to butter it as the tart dough contains enough butter. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature and the butter and ricotta cheese are nice and soft.
Step 2
In the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth, then add the powder sugar until light and fluffy. Add then the 2 eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla essence.
Step 3
In a separate bowl, mix the flours and the baking powder. Start incorporating little by little into the butter and eggs mixture. Continue to beat for 2-3 minutes. At the end, add the ricotta cheese and beat for another 1-2 minutes.
Step 4
Spread the dough in the tart form. Add the ricotta frangipane cream in the middle and decorate with apricots on top. I like to cut them in half and slice them while keeping the shape of a half apricot. I think pastries look really pretty with this rustic design. Fold the edges of the dough, freestyle, to partially cover the cream and fruits, on the sides. If you’re having troubles with this technique, check out again this NYT Cooking video, it’s super easy.
Step 5
Beat one egg and add a bit of cream or just water, to make an egg wash that you spread on the edges of the galette. Then sprinkle brown sugar or almond flakes or both, to give a prettier look to this summer beauty.
Step 6
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, but watch constantly to prevent burning. Mine was slightly over baked, but I personally love the flavour that comes with browned pastries (like the French flan, which is basically baked pastry cream… yum!)
When ready, let it cool and glaze with a fruit syrup or just leave it as is and enjoy the natural savour of the sweet sour apricots. I still had some caramel left from a few days ago when I made caramelized bananas for Sam and I ended up eating them (a story for another time). So I mixed this deliciousness with a bit of apricot jam, warmed it up a bit and got an amazing glazing syrup.
Enjoy the summer and eat your fruits and vegetables my friends. The ones growing closest to your home are always the best!
