Originally posted March 19, 2015. Revised and updated August 4, 2016.
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If you’re like me, you probably have fond memories from your early childhood of a few favorite dishes. For me, apricot tart is definitely one of those recipes.
My mother used to bake it on birthdays, for school festivals, holidays, or even for no special reason – just when we were in need of a nice treat that was easy and quick to make!
I can’t decide whether I like this dessert best right out of the oven when it’s still warm, or even one or two days later (when it’s still great to eat), after it’s been chilled.
In any case, nothing can beat the balanced pairing between the vanilla cream and the fruity apricots.
The recipe below is designed to be made in a 10-inch springform baking tin, and it also uses room temperature butter to make it easier to blend the ingredients well.
The Recipe
- 2 15 oz cans of apricot halves,
- 9 oz plain flour
- 4 oz butter at room temperature
- 3 1/2 oz sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 eggs
- 9 fluid oz heavy cream
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp vanilla (liquid or powder)
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- Grease a 10-inch springform baking pan and preheat the oven to 325°F with the rack at its lowest setting.
- First, drain the apricots. Set aside. Cut the softened butter into cubes.
- Next, make the dough for the crust. Mix and then knead together the flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, and one egg.
- Place your dough in the pan and press so the surface is smooth, with about an inch going up the sides around the edges. Then arrange the apricot halves on it with their round sides facing up.
- Prepare the custard filling by combining the remaining eggs, cream, cornstarch, vanilla, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Stir to combine well. Slowly pour the mixture over the apricot halves - this will look a bit like fried eggs with their sunny sides up.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack until the filling is warm (not hot!) for immediate consumption, or let the tart cool completely prior to putting it in the refrigerator to serve later.
Cooking By the Numbers…
Step 1 – Grease Pan & Preheat
First, preheat the oven to 325°F, and place the rack as low as it will go in your oven.
Grease a 10-inch springform baking pan with butter or spray oil, being sure to get into the corners around the edges. You can also line your pan with parchment paper, and grease that instead.
Step 2 – Drain Apricots & Cube Butter
Open up both cans of apricot halves and pour them into a strainer or colander places over a large mixing bowl. You can save the syrup for another purpose, or discard it. Set aside.
Cut your softened butter into cubes, and place in a large mixing bowl.
Step 3 – Prepare Crust Dough
In a large bowl, combine the softened butter with the flour, sugar, baking powder, and an egg. Cracking the egg into a separate, smaller bowl is a helpful tip, since it’ll be easier to remove any shells that might get in there by accident.
Stir to form a shaggy dough, then knead in the bowl or on a lightly floured countertop to form the dough to make your crust.
Step 4 – Form the Crust
Rather than rolling it out, place your ball of tart dough in the center of your prepared pan.
Press it down to fill the space evenly, with about an inch of crust around the inside edges of the pan. Smooth the dough, with your fingers or a spoon.
Step 5 – Arrange Apricots
One of the best parts of this tart (aside from the delicious flavor!) is the beautiful presentation that it offers.
Carefully arrange your halved apricots cut side down, and fill the entire space of your crust. They should lay flat and should not overlap.
Step 6 – Prepare Filling
Next, it’s time to make the custard filling.
Place the remaining eggs, cream, cornstarch, vanilla, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl, and stir to combine well. I prefer to use a large balloon whisk to do this.
Step 7 – Fill Tart Shell
Slowly pour the filling over the apricots, being careful not to disturb them.
The cream will fill in the spaces around the fruit, creating something that looks a lot like a big pan full of sunny-side up eggs.
Step 8 – Bake & Serve
Bake your tart for 50-60 minutes, until the crust is golden.
Cool on a wire rack briefly, if you want to serve this delectable dessert immediately. You want it to be warm when you’re ready to serve, not steaming hot.
Waiting a bit before cutting into the tart gives the filling a chance to set, and it will be much easier to cut nice slices.
If you prefer, allow your tart to cool completely on the counter, and then chill it in the refrigerator before serving. A scoop of homemade ice cream or sorbet makes a wonderful accompaniment to this dish.
Fresh, ripe apricots would make a wonderful addition to this recipe during stone fruit season. Simply score the bottoms, blanch for 30 seconds, and chill in an ice bath – the skins will slide right off.
Bake times may need to be adjusted since the texture and liquid ratio is not exactly the same for fresh fruit as it is for the canned version. Keep an eye on your tart while it bakes, and check for doneness.
In the mood for a different sweet dessert with just a touch of apricot flavor, and plenty of chocolate? Try my recipe for Viennese Sacher Torte.
More tart recipes? Bake another:
How did this recipe work for you? Let us know in the comments!
Photos by Nina Isensee, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Additional writing and editing by Allison Sidhu.
About Nina-Kristin Isensee
Nina lives in Iserlohn, Germany and holds an MA in Art History (Medieval and Renaissance Studies). She is currently working as a freelance writer in various fields. She enjoys travel, photography, cooking, and baking. Nina tries to cook from scratch every day when she has the time and enjoys trying out new spices and ingredients, as well as surprising her family with new cake creations.
Apricot Tart seems like a wonderful idea for Easter. It just exudes spring with the vibrant yellow. I think it would make a wonderful Easter desert. I like that it still tastes great after a few days and chilled. So, I can make ahead and just pull out of the fridge when I’m ready to serve. That is very helpful when you have so much to do for a Easter celebration on the same day.
Simple, fun, and easy dessert to make. It’s a blessing for when you don’t have enough time to prepare dinner and need a quick dessert to make up time. Best thing is, you just pop them in the oven and leave them to cook, freeing you up to do other things while they do their thing.
Is there a possibility this tart can be made with fresh apricots? I’d clearly cook them down beforehand but I’m a little apprehensive about the sugar content of canned apricots generally. I can always alter what I put into a recipe but it’s tough to get any sugar (unless you toss the syrup which might affect the recipe) out of the canned apricot.
Definitely, you can do that. Actually, I would recommend not to use the syrup because – as you say – the cake would become too sweet and on the other hand, the mixture would become too fluid!
I think fresh apricots are a perfect choice when you can get some.
That apricot tart looks wonderful, it really does. And I reckon it would be easy enough to make it completely dairy free as well by switching the cream out for pureed cashew nuts and the butter for margarine or even just using a shop bought shortcrust pastry which is already dairy free.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention anything about the dough for the crust. From my experience (of watching cooking competition shows), for a flaky crust, you HAVE to use cold butter, not room temp. You really have to be careful with the kneading step because the warmth from your hands could heat up that butter and then the final product won’t be nearly as good.
Actually, the dough won’t be that flaky, more of a shortcrust pastry. You should just be able to mix everything together and if the butter is too hard, it will be a bit difficult.
But, if you were going to roll the dough – as for puff pastry – you’re absolutely right! Then, the butter should be a bit colder (but not hard) when you work with it.
That apricot tart does look tasty! I’d serve it with thick double cream or ice cream. I ike the fact that tinned apricots will work just as well as the fresh variety – they can be difficult to get hold of sometimes.
Mmmm! This looks absolutely mouth watering. My brother adores apricots and loves to cook and bake. I will have to send him the link to this post.
Thanks for sharing your family recipe. I can’t wait to try this out. Yum!
Thanks, I hope your family will enjoy it as much as mine does 😉
I almost always double my recipes, also. This sounds like a nice treat, and it seems fairly straightforward, so I don’t think making it would be an issue. I had to look up vanilla powder, and what I found is that vanilla extract can be substituted, but to use half the amount of extract. I’m sure it’s probably better with the powder, but I don’t have any,and can’t get out right now.
I think it will be fine when you use vanilla extract instead. Sometimes, when I’m out of powder, I also take a vanilla pod and scrape it out or I use a small sachet of vanilla sugar which is a common product here in Germany. Maybe you have / you know a similar product.
I believe I have had a tart in the past. Though I don’t remember eating apricots before. I have a hard time finding it in stores, unless it is dried. This sweet treat would be nice to have for any occasion really. Now I gave something new to try.
If you can’t find any apricots you might have a try with halved peaches or nectarines. I suppose these fruits would work out great too with the creamy vanilla flavor. I think it’s best to peel them when they are fresh but it’d be a fruity and luscious treat too 🙂
Oh, I wasn’t really mistaken! The tart actually did look like one topped with sunny side-up eggs! Haha, next to chocolates, EGGS are what catches my attention too! I was totally fooled! Never mind that I read the title, haha! I guess in my defense, apricots aren’t a popular fruit in my part of the world. In any case, I wish we had this kind of dessert growing up. My mother nor her mother before her just wasn’t too experimental in the kitchen. But I’m glad that with sites like FOODAL, recipes that I’m ignorant about before are now known to me.
It really does look like this, right? 🙂 I’m happy to hear that you enjoy reading our recipes and ideas. If you like this tart, you could try to replace the apricots with halved and peeled apples, for example, if you can’t find the required fruits. Either way, I hope you stay around and enjoy the different articles.
It does actually look really nice too. It has that homemade texture and appearance that just says “comfort food.” I can almost smell it baking now. It really brings me back to my grandma’s kitchen, and all the homemade goodies she used to make.
This makes a nice “tradition” recipe. I could see serving this for family get-togethers or holidays as well. It doesn’t seem too hard or expensive to make either, so those are certainly bonuses.
Sharing this, right now.
I haven’t heard about apricot before, but it seems such a perfect dessert. And I really liked the fact that it has peaches on it, it’s one of my favorite fruits.
It actually reminded me to a bread that my grandmother used to do when I was a little kid, I obviously don’t remember the recipe at all but it was a simple but delicious bread with some fruits such as peaches and pineapple sliced on the top, yum! It’s weird how you can connect memories with food sometimes.
That sounds lovely, too. Your’re right that there is a special connection between food and our memories, it’s amazing how this can influence what kind of foods we like or not. Enjoy making this treat sometime!
Well any time that you “my mom’s” in front of the name of a dish, you can usually count on it being pretty good, and often times pretty unique, which is always interesting. I was definitely a little late to the party when it comes for my appreciation of apricots, but lately they are one of my favorite fruits. I always like to have new ways to incorporate them into my kitchen routine too, so this will work perfectly for me. It sounds like a good summer time treat as well, which I am always in need of. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! It’s definitely like this – those “family inspired” recipes are always some of the best. I hope you will enjoy making this one at some point, it’s a lovely and fruity dessert as long as it’s warm and sunny outside.
I totally agree. I’ve yet to come across a recipe that belonged to someone’s mother or grandmother that wasn’t phenomenal. I certainly wouldn’t want to pass on any recipes that weren’t to die for. This tart looks really good. I especially love the apricots. This is the first recipe that I will be trying with apricots, and I have to say, I am really excited about it. Thank you for this great addition to my menu.
Thanks, I hope this one will be a success. Apricots are perfect for baking; what I also like is to bake muffins with a halved fruit that I press into the dough. In the end, it looks quite a bit similar to this cake. So, enjoy experimenting and baking! 🙂
Yum! We have a box of freshly picked apricots and have no clue what to do with them, besides eat them straight. I am trying to avoid them going to waste, so this recipe is just what I need! Plus, it looks like a pizza, at least to a four year old, so I suppose my daughter will love it too.
This is great! I wish I had the opportunity, but at most times I need to rely on the canned fruits, because I don’t get fresh ones here very often. However, I think it will taste delicious! Have fun making this tasty apricot-pizza-style cake 🙂
I definitely would add some cream up on it to make it look better, I will take it into account for my dad’s birthday this month. This really looks awesome, for real, I do not really understand how people can make such a perfect thing like this. Thank you for sharing.