Apricot & Pistachio Tart

This one is a little spin on the Pear and Frangipane Tart I’ve posted up here quite a while ago. Adding pistachios to the classic frangipane recipe makes the flavour a bit richer and more complex, and apricots, when baked, become all lovely and slightly sour and like that a great contrast to the overall sweetness. As with most of my recipes I do like to use non-refined ingredients, but feel free to swap my more wholesome flours and sugars to whiter ones.

INGREDIENTS:

Pastry:

200 g whole wheat flour
50 g ground almonds
75 g sugar (i use coconut or rapadura, but you can use any type of sugar)
a pinch of salt
125 g butter (cold, cut into little chunks)
a bit of water if needed

Frangipane:

100 g butter (room temperature)
80 g coconut sugar
50 g ground almonds (I prefer them not completely ground, so the frangipane is a bit crunchy)
100 g ground pistachios
1 tbsp spelt flour
1 egg
A pinch of salt

Topping:

12 ripe apricots

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180°C..
For the pastry, simply put everything in a self-standing mixer and put on high-speed and continue mixing until a ball is formed. If this doesn’t happen, add a tablespoon of cold water. Shape it like a loaf, and slice into 0,5cm thick slices.
Butter the tin generously and start assembling the slices. Use them to cover the bottom and sides of the tin.
Set the tin in the freezer for a few minutes until the oven temperature reaches 180°C.
Bake the tart shell for 12 minutes, put out of the oven and set aside.
For the frangipane filling put butter, sugar and the egg into a self-standing mixer, put on the highest speed and gradually add almonds, pistachios and flour until well combined. Set aside.
Remove the pits of apricots and slice them in 6 wedges.
Cover the baked shell with frangipane and arrange the apricots on top – there should be enough to cover the frangipane.
Now you can play a bit with the remaining dough, you can make little »snakes« and make a pattern of your choice.
Bake for another 40 minutes or until golden brown. It’s delicious on its own or with some apricot jam and creme fraiche.