Apricot Pecan Tart

Last week Christophe's grandmother gave us a crate full of apricots and we accepted gratefully. But what in the heck do we do with an entire crate of apricots? Again, wishing I had a restaurant to bake for!

The apricots lucky enough not to have been eaten already, patiently waited this past week to participate in some kind of delicious dessert. Today was their special day. Since I was thinking about baking for the old restaurant, I decided to pull out my chocolate covered pastry book (accidentally dropped it in a flourless chocolate cake batter), that consists of recipes I have collected over the years. I knew exactly what I wanted to make when I pulled out the book...Chef Terry's Tart Batter. This recipe can be made with lots of different kinds of fruit and can be the filling to a tart dough or you could bake it in a baking dish without the tart dough. It's a great recipe to accentuate really ripe fruit. I chose to make a real tart with the tart dough, only because I can buy flaky, buttery tart dough at the store. It costs 2€ and it's already rolled out. So I will admit that it is rare that I make tart or quiche dough nowadays. It tastes just as good from the grocery store, no joke.
Apricot Pecan Tart

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon almond extract
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans or almonds
• 15 medium sized apricots or enough of another fruit to fill a 9-inch pie dish
• 1 store bought tart dough
  

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or parchment paper a 9-inch tart dish.

Blind bake the tart dough. Once the dough is cooled, remove the dried beans or rice.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the first seven ingredients. The flour may clump up so you will have to strain the batter through a sieve before baking. Halve the apricots and remove pits. Arrange them in the tart dough as you like. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the apricots. Strain the batter over the fruit and nuts. Bake tart 20-30minutes until firm and golden. Serve at room temperature...with vanilla ice cream!

To talk about Chef Terry quickly. He used to be our chef at the old restaurant and we worked side by side everyday. He is amazingly talented and we exchanged recipes all the time. He actually gave me a lot more than I gave him, but whatever. Now he has taken over the restaurant from us, creating eclectic menus from Asia to France to South America. If you are ever in Tallahassee or are living in Tallahassee, please check it out.

Sage Restaurant
3534 Maclay Blvd.
Tallahassee, FL 32308
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