Ingredients
¼ cup honey
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4-6 (approx 500g) apricots halved lengthwise, pits removed
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
¼ cup raw pistachios, finely chopped
Vanilla ice cream (for serving)
Summary
This tart is a riff on the classic French Tarte Tatin. Here, we swap out apples for summer’s friendliest stone fruit, the apricot! The use of store-bought pastry makes this dessert an absolute cinch to make, with pretty stunning results. Vanilla ice cream is not essential, but there is something intrinsic about vanilla and apricots in one mouthful – you decide!
Upside-Down Apricot Tart
Place a rack in middle of oven and preheat to 220°.
Cook honey, sugar, salt, and 2 tbsp water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until caramel turns dark amber in colour (keep an eye on it, it happens quite quickly). Remove caramel from heat and add butter (be careful; mixture will bubble up). Stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate.
Pour caramel into a 21cm diameter cake tin (don’t use spring form or you run the risk of the caramel escaping!) and swirl to evenly coat the bottom – you want to work quite quickly here as you don’t want the caramel to begin setting.
Arrange apricots, cut side down, in pan, letting them overlap slightly if needed.
Prick pastry all over with a fork. Drape over the pan, then, using scissors or a sharp knife, trim to make a circle that’s slightly larger than the circumference and tuck it in.
Bake tart until pastry is puffed and just golden, 15–20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 190° and continue to bake until pastry is deep golden brown and fruit juices are bubbling, 15–20 minutes longer. Transfer tart to a wire rack and let cool for just a minute or so, if you wait too long the caramel will stick to the tin.
Invert a large plate (at least 2 cm larger than the cake tin) over the top of the pan. Using a dish towel or oven mitts, flip tart over onto plate. Carefully remove pan. Top tart with pistachios.
Serve tart with ice cream if desired.
Recipe by Alison Roman
