Monday 24 September 2012

Apricot Mascarpone Tart

I think it’s time to face up to the fact that summer is ending. It probably already ended a while ago to be fair. Looking back at my blog posts for the summer months, it may not massively look like I’ve been embracing the bounty of fruit summer offers. The truth is like I’ve said before, my family generally just eats the fruit really simply rather than baking with it. There’s also things I never got round to photographing and blogging, such as my first attempt at jam making with Apricot and Almond Jam: one little tester jar that was delicious (if very sweet) and eaten quickly, like all the best things are. But as the nights get darker, the final raspberries on the garden cane ripen and my final (!) school year is well underway, I get a little nostalgic about the summer that has just passed. So to celebrate the end of Summer 2012, I made a sunshine filled Apricot and Mascarpone Tart. DSCF9137My Mum is not the biggest fan of rich cheesecake type things, so I was looking forward to being able to use mascarpone for once in this tart. As expected, it gave the tart an extra creaminess and richness, but you couldn’t really taste it in a sense that you would be able to identify what it was if you didn’t know. The combination of apricots and almonds is a classic and so was delicious, and I particularly liked the slightly tart roasted apricots offsetting the sweetness of the rest of the dish. The pastry was a method I hadn't seen before – creaming the butter and sugar together before beating in the flour – and I think this resulted in a slightly different texture to normal sweet shortcrust but it was equally as tasty! The recipe came from Lucas Hollweg's recipe section in the Sunday Times Style magazine a few weeks back, which is behind the paywall currently but visible at the weekends. Enjoy :) Apologies for the photo quality – dark rainy nights aren’t the easiest conditions, especially with a hungry family waiting!DSCF9134

8 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Wonderful! Today I also made a mascarpone tart, but with plums...

Cheers,

Rosa

Dewi said...

Yum! Something as good as apricot tart, I find it pretty hard to resist.

Jo said...

Looks lovely. A perfect way to wave off the summer.

La Table De Nana said...

I always question the dearness in price for mascarpone..until..the creaminess:-) That's why it is so pricey here I think..your tart looks splendiferous..Lucy,what after this final year?Would love to know your plans..whatever they are..you will shine.

Faith said...

This looks like the perfect treat to say farewell to summer! It is lovely, and such a delicious combo of flavors with almond, apricot, and mascarpone!

The Caked Crusader said...

Great looking tart - such happy colours!

Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane said...

It's sad that summer's over now, but at least that means we get to bake winter pies and crumbles and stuff now! :) I think the use of mascarpone is really good, it works really well with all fruits. Good luck for your final year!

scrambled megs said...

looks stunning, lucy. love it! x