It is such a short period of time, a little over a month, when apricots are available at the farmers market. As I spent some time in Austria in my childhood, this fruit is very special to me. The Austrian people call apricots “Marillen” instead of the German “Aprikosen,” and there are so many beautiful sweets made with this fruit. In the summertime, when you go to the farmers market there, you even see the vendor selling only this Marillen.
As the apricot season arrived, my desire was to make the apricot tart besides making a jam, as well as enjoying fresh ones on their own. My tart is, in fact, not inspired by the Austrian sweets, but by the French Tarte aux Abricots. When I visited Paris with my husband for the first time together, we went once to a special restaurant for a lunch, and the dessert of that day was Tarte aux Abricots. So, this tart is filled with special memories for me.
Vegan Tarte aux Abricots
The Tarte aux Abricots we had at that French restaurant was made with eggs, butter, and cream for the filling. (It is one of those rare occasion when I just enjoy so fully this kind of meal.) I could make dairy-free apricot tart, still using eggs and substituting the cream with coconut cream or cashew cream, but, it is my principle: when you can come up with a vegan recipe, bake vegan cake!
The solution for me was to bake this apricot tart in the same manner as baking the pear tart—to bake with the almond cream (creme d’amande), but of course the vegan version. In fact, there are Tarte aux Abricots in France whose filling is creme d’amande, instead of the egg and cream filling. It is just a different version of Tarte aux Abricots, and it is absolutely delicious.
Instead of butter, I use coconut oil. Surprisingly, you don’t feel at all that the butter is missing when you eat this cake. My husband was praising it when he had his first piece and said that this brings him back to Paris immediately. This was definitely the best complement I could have for making vegan apricot tart.
Beauty of Baked Apricot
It is a treat to eat fresh apricots which are only available for this short period of time per year. And there is nothing similar to its delicate and delicious flavor. At the same time, when you bake this fruit, the complexity of the flavor multiplies. Eating this baked apricot warm is also very special, as the flesh of the fruit melts in your mouth. I don’t usually serve the cake while it is still warm, but this tart I wanted to enjoy only the first slice warm.
Too delicious to add much sugar!
You don’t need much sugar to bake a delicious cake! This is my principle of baking sweets. Especially, when you incorporate fruits in your cake, they can bring such beautiful sweetness that the rest of the cake does not actually need so much sweetener. In this way, the deliciousness of the fruits can be also enjoyed even more.
To make this whole tart, I only used three teaspoons of coconut sugar besides using some homemade baked apple sauce. This cake has a perfect sweetness and it enhances the beautiful flavor and sweetness of baked apricot. More sugar will numb the fruits’ flavor, and this is what I love about baking cake with fruits. You enjoy eating fruits, but in a slightly different form. In this case, the alchemy of apple and apricot with some hint of lemon. Not only is it so delicious, but it is also so much healthier than baking with much sugar and syrups.
If you are curious about baking in this way, Strawberry shortcake I made recently is definitely another good example. And I will be posting more recipes for wonderfully delicious, vegan, whole-grain, minimum sweetener recipes in the future!
Apricot Jam, a glaze for the tarts
The apricot jam will be an essential ingredient for making baked fruit tarts during this coming year, whether apple, pear, or apricot, to glaze with. So, I usually make the jam during the apricot season and keep it in the freezer.
Baking process
Vegan Apricot Tart (Tarte aux Abricot)
Ingredients
- 23cmØ tart baking form
- —————
- For Tart Crust:
- 80g whole spelt flour
- 50g almond meal
- 2 tbsp flax meal
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
- 30g coconut milk
- 40g coconut oil
- —————
- For Creme d’Amande:
- 50g almond meal
- 30g whole spelt flour
- 2 tsp coconut sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 pinch of salt
- 50g apple sauce
- 20g coconut milk
- 18g coconut oil
- 1tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp brandy (optional)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- —————
- apricots
- —————
- For glaze (optional):
- apricot jam
Directions
- Step 1 To prepare for the crust, mix all the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls.
- Step 2 Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl and mix together.
- Step 3 Once mixed well together, shape into a ball.
- Step 4 Put the dough ball into a container, put a lid on, and store in the fridge for about 1-2 hours.
- Step 5 Meanwhile, to prepare the almond cream, have the dry and wet ingredients mixed in separate bowls.
- Step 6 Take the dough out from the fridge and turn the oven to 340 F.
- Step 7 Dust the table or on the parchment paper, roll the dough into round shape. Put the tart form on top and check the size. Adjust the size if needed.
- Step 8 Place the dough on the dusted tart form. Create holes with a fork.
- Step 9 Put the form into the oven and bake for 12 minutes.
- Step 10 While baking the crust, cut the apricots in half and remove pits. Then pour in the dry ingredients of the almond cream into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix together to have ready.
- Step 11 Take the crust out from the oven and turn the oven heat up to 350 F.
- Step 12 Spread the almond cream batter onto the crust, then put the apricot pieces on top.
- Step 13 Put the form into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes until the apricots are well baked.
- Step 14 Take the form out from the oven. Glaze with some apricot jam. (I use the one that I make with apricots and apple juice, stored in the freezer for any kind of glazing for tarts I make.)
- Step 15 Let it cool down or enjoy it warm!
