Preserved apricots with vanilla ice cream is one of my favourite desserts, but for a special occasion I press them into a baked custard tart and sprinkle it with thyme.

Nadine says…

There is an orchard of stone fruit trees growing in the furrows of my heart. They were planted there as a child. I still run between the trees and sit under the branches, plucking ripe fruit from the ladened boughs. Plots of apricots, plums and peaches, perfectly stitched like patchwork fields.

Once a year my cousins would come to stay at my grandparents’ farm for a weekend and my grandmother would make peach dumplings for dessert. My grandfather would go out to the orchard to pick the juiciest peaches from the trees with all the kids trailing behind him like the Pied Piper, while my grandmother made the pastry and entertained the women indoors.

After dinner, the kids would go back outside to play (in the dark) and the adults would banter on, their annual cards tournament lifting the roof with eruptions of laughter. It was the happiest I was all year and we would all fall asleep that night with full tummies and smiles on our faces.

These days my love for stone fruit is rekindled when I go to The Agrarian Kitchen in Tasmania to teach. There are always gallon jars of apricots lining the walls. Preserved in the summer for their menu all year round, they are a nostalgic reminder of my grandparents’ farm and the buckets of stone fruit that we would yield from the orchards.

Preserved apricots with vanilla ice cream is one of my favourite desserts, but for a special occasion I press them into a baked custard tart and sprinkle it with thyme. Again, vanilla ice cream as an accompaniment never goes astray.

I’m constantly trying to project nostalgic memories into my future by continuing to make tarts like this. That way, a version of my childhood gets passed on to my children, for them to make their own stories.

NADINE INGRAM’S NEW COOKBOOK LOVE CRUMBS IS OUT NOW.

 

Agrarian Apricot Tart

Ingredients
Serves 10-12

Almond Sable

190g unsalted butter, softened
80g icing sugar, sifted
55g demerara sugar
2 egg yolks
125g spelt flour
125g emmer wheat flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
90g whole blanched almonds, toasted and finely ground

Thyme Custard Filling

425g double cream
250g pure cream
½ teaspoon vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped or vanilla paste
10 thyme sprigs, ¼ picked into petals
8 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
8 fresh apricots (12 preserved apricot halves, drained)
Icing sugar for sprinkling

Method

To make the sable, combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer (with the paddle attachment) and cream together on low speed for no more than 2 minutes. They should be pale, but not too fluffy: do not overbeat.

Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Remove bowl from the mixer, and sift the flours directly into the bowl, then add the salt and almond and fold through using a spatula.

Place a large piece of baking paper onto your bench and scoop the pastry onto the paper, covering it with another sheet of the same size. Using your hands, pat the pastry into a round disc then roll the pastry evenly between the sheets, until it is 5mm thick and 32cm in diameter. Place the pastry in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Lightly grease a 25cm round tart tin with butter and dust with flour, or give it a light spray with oil. Remove the pastry from the fridge and peel off the top paper. Invert the pastry over the top of your tart tin. Peel off the bottom sheet, and gently tuck the pastry into the tart tin, pressing it into the tin’s sides and base. Trim the rim of the pastry to create an even edge. Pop the pastry case in the freezer to set hard for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150°C. Prepare a round piece of baking paper or foil 30cm in diameter. Remove the pastry case from the freezer and line the inside with the prepared round piece, then fill the case with baking beads. Ensure the paper or foil is not hanging over the edge, which will place pressure on the fragile pastry when baking. Bake for 35 minutes then remove from the oven and allow the pastry to set for 15 minutes. Gently remove the baking beads and paper.

Place the creams, vanilla bean and seeds, and 5 thyme sprigs in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit and infuse for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, whip the egg yolks and the sugar together using a hand whisk until pale and fluffy. Return cream to the boil and then pour it over the yolks. Whisk everything together thoroughly, then strain the custard through a fine sieve to remove the thyme and vanilla bean. Pour the custard into a jug ready for pouring into the pastry case.

Preheat the oven to 120°C. Place the baked tart shell on a flat tray then manoeuvre it into the oven and pour the custard into the pastry until it reaches 1cm from the rim of the pastry. This is a task best done while the tart is in the oven to avoid any spillages.

Bake the custard for 35 minutes. Open the oven door and place the fresh or preserved apricots on the surface of the custard while the tart is still in the oven. Top the tart with the sprigs and petals of thyme and bake for a further 30 minutes or until the custard no longer wobbles. Press the middle of the custard with your finger to double-check the tart is firm, then remove it from the oven and cool the tart in the tin for 2 hours. Remove the tart from the tin and slice using a sharp, pointed knife. Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.

Published in ed#725