Apricot tartlets
Makes 10
Pastry
1 large egg
30g sugar
20g ground almond
130g flour
50g butter
2 pinches salt
Curd
300g fresh apricots,
pitted
80g sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp lemon juice
Meringue
3 egg whites
180g sugar
60ml water
1 pinch of salt
Making the pastry
- In a large
bowl mix together the egg, the sugar, the ground almond and the salt.
- Fold in the
flour then add the butter. When properly blended, make into a ball and
place in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat your
oven at 190°C.
- Dust some
flour on your tabletop and roll out your dough until you obtain 3mm of
thickness. Cut out dough circles so that they are slightly larger than
your moulds. This way the dough will fall over the edge. Place the dough
onto each mould and put in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Place some
baking beans on the bottom of your moulds and put in the oven for 10
minutes at 190°C.
- Get rid of
the beans and cut off the extra dough at the top. Doing so will give you a
perfectly shaped tart. Put back in the oven for some more minutes then put
aside to cool down.
Making the curd
- Blend the apricots with the lemon juice
and 2 tbsp of water until you obtain a purée. Pop this mixture through a sieve to get
rid of the fruit bits and fibres.
- Heat up the apricot purée on medium
heat.
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, the
sugar and the cornflour together.
- Pour the heated apricot over the egg mix
and return to the heat.
- Keep mixing until you have a smooth
texture.
- Pop this mixture into each tartlet case,
once they have cooled.
Making the meringue
topping
- Make syrup by
heating up the sugar and water. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites with the
salt. When the syrup reaches 118°C, pour it slowly over the egg meringue
while mixing. If you don’t have a
thermometer like me, the soft ball test worked fine.
- With a piping
bag, cover the top of your tarts. I
tried a couple of different piping patterns to mix it up a bit. Finally put under the grill to give it a
golden finish.
