July 2008
This month, we are cooking with Peaches, Plums, and Apricots. Here is an amazingly simple Recipe that brings out the flavor of any of these fruits. I have adapted it from one published by Anita Chu, founder of the Dessert First blog. Try it, you'll like it!

Download this recipe as a PDF.

Apricot-Almond Tartlets

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole almonds (blanched or unblanched)
1/4 cup sugar plus additional for sprinkling
1 egg
4 Tbs. butter (half a stick), cut in 1/2-inch pieces
1 Tbs. flour
A few drops almond extract

1 container (14 oz.) Dufour Puff Pastry
12 fresh apricots (or 6 peaches, or 8 plums)
Flour for rolling out dough

Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

To make the frangipane filling, put in the container of a food processor, the nuts, sugar, egg, butter, flour, and almond extract. Process until smooth.

To make the tarts, remove the pastry from its wrapper and lay on a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour the dough and a rolling pin; and roll out the dough—making sure it does not stick to the counter or board—until it is about 3/8 of an inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into rectangles about 3-1/2 inches by 5-1/2 inches. Lay the rectangles on a baking sheet, preferably covered with parchment paper.

Put a spoonful of the filling on each rectangle of dough and spread with wet fingers to about 1/2 inch from the edges. With a sharp knife cut large slices of fruit to cover the almond filling—called frangipane. Sprinkle the fruit with sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 min, until the tarts are golden brown.

Makes 10 to 12.

Note: I like to serve these tarts with mascarpone mixed with heavy cream and sugar.

MSR

Recipe adapted from Anita Chu on www.dessertfirst.typepad.com