Apricot Bakewell Tart

I love apricots in any form.  Fresh, jam and from the tin.  This summer I tried preserving them myself, I had a couple of kilo in the fridge so one evening after work while cooking dinner I set to halving them and putting them in jars, covering them with sugar syrup (light) and preserving them in a water bath. 

Well they looked great and sat on the shelf in my pantry looking pretty with all the other preserved fruit and veg I have there.

Today it is cold, raining on and off and just not a summer day by anyone's standards!  And I hear the other half saying, "well dur its winter Kate"  and well I needed a taste of summer to brighten my day.  So I cracked, well had Jonathan help me to crack open 2 of my jars of apricots.

We both stood there as the most fantastic smell of apricots filled the kitchen,  I stuck my finger in the juice and had a taste and told Jonathan to do the same.  WOW is all I can say the smell and taste of the home preserved apricots is out of this world!  I highly recommend trying it even if you can only do small batches of 2 or 4 jars it is well worth the little bit of effort.

Pastry

90g butter
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour

Place all the ingredients in food processor and pulse then add 2 table spoons of cold water and pulse until forms a ball. 

Turn out onto baking paper and form into a ball.  Wrap in glad wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper, the dough can be a bit sticky and it is easier than a floured surface. 

 

 

 

Roll out to size big enough to line your tart tin.  Brush the pastry with apricot jam and refrigerate while you do the filling.

Filling

825g tin of apricots
100g room temp butter
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 tspn grated lemon rind
pinch ground cinnamon
2 tblspn milk

 

Drain apricots and place on a couple of sheets of paper towel to pat dry.  Place apricots in pastry shell cut side down.

 

 

 

 

In your mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time until combined.  Fold in sifted flour, almonds, rind, cinnamon and milk until combined.  Spoon the almond mixture over the apricots and spread.  The mix will not fill the whole tart shell but this is OK as it will melt and spread out.

 

Bake at 180C for one hour.  After 20 minutes cover loosely with foil to stop the top burning and bake for a further 40 minutes.