Apricot Ricotta Tart Recipes

APRICOT TARTS

Steps:

• In a small bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and flour until blended. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. , For filling, in a small saucepan, bring apricots and water to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Drain. Add the pecans, sugar, marmalade, cinnamon and cloves; set aside., Shape dough into 24 balls. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of greased miniature muffin cups. Spoon filling into cups. , Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until browned. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. , For topping, in a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spoon a dollop onto each tart. Store in the refrigerator.

RICOTTA-APRICOT TART

Steps:

• Crust: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat in the egg and half the flour, then add the remaining flour and mix until evenly blended. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a thick disk, wrap it well, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Heavily flour your work surface and the dough. Roll the dough to fit a 10-inch tart pan or a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan. Place the dough in the pan, and prick it all over with the tines of a fork. (The crust will be blind-baked -- baked without any filling -- but it doesn't need to be weighed down with beans or rice or pie weights, as long as you prick it thoroughly with a fork.).
• Bake the crust in a preheated 425°F oven for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350°F, and bake it until it's golden brown, about another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven and cool it while making the filling.
• Filling: In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, cream, eggs, egg yolk, sugar, vanilla, Fiori di Sicilia or orange oil, and flour. Set aside.
• Peel and slice the apricots. To quickly peel apricots, fill a large pan with hot water. Bring it to a boil, and place the apricots in the pan. Bring back to a boil, and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the apricots from the hot water and plunge them into a bowl of ice water. The skins should slip off easily.
• Assembly and Baking: Stone and slice the apricots. Pour the ricotta mixture into the tart shell. Place about 10 slices of apricot over the filling; they'll sink partially -- it's OK. Bake the tart in a preheated 350°F oven for about 45 minutes, until the filling looks mostly set.
• Sauce: Place the remaining sliced apricots into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the brown sugar, water, and brandy, if you're using it. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the apricots are cooked through and the sauce starts to thicken. Remove the sauce from the heat, and transfer it to a serving dish. It can remain at room temperature while the tart cools.
• Let the ricotta tart cool for several hours before cutting it into wedges. Spoon the sauce over each piece before serving, or serve it on the side. Refrigerate any leftover tart.

RICOTTA TART WITH APRICOT COMPOTE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• To prepare crust, roll out chilled Sweet Pastry on a lightly floured surface. Fit into a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom, pressing pastry onto bottom and up sides of pan. Trim edges of pastry. Prick bottom of crust all over with a fork.
• Line bottom of pastry with a piece of parchment paper and fill pastry with pie weights, dried beans or raw rice. This helps prevent the crust from shrinking or puffing up during baking.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from oven. Remove pie weights and parchment paper. Continue baking until crust is fully baked and light golden, about 5 - 10 minutes. Cool crust completely in pan on a rack.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• To prepare filling, use medium speed of an electric mixer and beat together cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Add ricotta and beat until smooth. Add eggs, lemon peel and salt; beat until blended. Pour filling into crust in pan.
• Bake until filling is almost set, about 40 - 45 minutes. Cool tart completely in pan on a rack.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. Uncover and top with Apricot Compote.

FRESH APRICOT TART WITH PRUNES

Steps:

• Quarter the prunes, place them in a small saucepan with the nectar and liqueur, and simmer 10 minutes to soften them. Set them aside to cool.
• Mix the flour, granulated sugar and salt together in a bowl. Add all but one tablespoon of the butter and, using your fingertips or two knives, break the butter up into the flour mixture until the mixture has a coarse, mealy texture. This can be done by pulsing in a food processor. Sprinkle the ice water over the flour and butter mixture and, using a fork, lightly mix until the ingredients begin to cling together and can be formed into a dough. If you mixed the butter and flour together in a food processor, transfer them to a bowl to mix in the water by hand.
• Form the dough into a flattened ball and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Roll out the dough between sheets of waxed paper to form a circle 12 inches in diameter. Peel off one sheet of the waxed paper and place the dough, with the remaining sheet of paper on top, in a nine-inch tart pan. Peel off the top sheet of waxed paper and fit the dough into the pan. Trim the edges. Cover the pastry with a sheet of foil, weight it with pastry weights or dry beans and bake it for 10 minutes, until it looks dry. Remove it from the oven and remove the foil and weights.
• Pit and quarter the apricots, mix brown sugar and cinnamon together.
• Mix the prunes with a tablespoon of the brown sugar and spread them over the bottom of the pastry in the pan. Arrange the quartered apricots in a pattern over the prunes. Sprinkle the apricots with the remaining brown sugar and dot with bits of the remaining tablespoon of butter.
• Place in the oven and bake about 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the apricots begin to brown around the edges. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

APRICOT CROSTATA

Steps:

• Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour, salt, and lemon zest until mixture just forms a dough.
• Shape dough into 2 balls, 1 slightly larger than the other. Flatten each ball into a 5-inch disk, then wrap each in wax paper and chill 30 minutes.
• Stir together preserves, lemon juice, and extract in a small bowl.
• Roll out thicker piece of dough (keep remaining piece chilled) between 2 sheets of wax paper into an 11-inch round. Remove top sheet of paper and invert dough into a 9- by 1-inch fluted round tart pan with a removable bottom. Peel off paper and fit dough into pan, trimming side to 1/4 inch below top of rim. Chill shell.
• Roll out remaining dough in same manner and remove top sheet of paper, then cut dough into 10 (1-inch-wide) strips. Slide strips on wax paper onto a baking sheet and chill until firm, about 10 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Spread apricot filling in tart shell and arrange 5 strips across filling (about 1 inch apart), trimming excess dough at ends of strips. Arrange remaining 5 strips on top (about 1 inch apart) to form a lattice (do not weave), trimming ends. Press ends onto edge of tart shell and bake crostata in middle of oven until golden, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack.