Apricot Frangipane Pie and Finding Mistakes

 Do you ever have one of those days when the recipe you are making keeps having issues...and then you correct them in time but end up losing so much time? I had that kind of day making this pie.

I wanted to bring this pie with us to a dinner party the same evening. Since I'd already made this pie once before as a tart, I didn't think it would be difficult and so I started at about 3 pm, thinking it would be ready by about 4:30 with plenty of time to cool before we left at 5:15.

The first mistake I made was in choosing a pie plate. I should have gone with something pretty flat...maybe 1 1/2 inches high. Instead I went with a beautiful white ceramic plate that was about 2 1/2 inches high. I used the already made pie dough circle which I had remembered to take out of the fridge a while before...so that part was fine. Then I made my first mistake by putting it into the freezer. I often do that with single crust pies before blind baking because it helps to keep the dough from shrinking during baking. The part I forgot was that you don't do that with ceramic or glass pie plates. Going from freezer to hot oven works fine with metal plates, but not glass and ceramic! Fortunately I remembered after I took it from the freezer and before I put it in the oven! Let it sit awhile to warm up a bit, added parchment and my baking lentils (pie weights) and blind baked it. So far so good!

The next mistake was in not adjusting the recipe for a thicker filling. I needed twice as much filling for a pie 2 1/2 inches high. That includes having more room temperature eggs and butter, more ground almonds, and all the filling ingredients really. Fortunately I had an extra egg at room temperature and I used all the butter in the two butter dishes because that butter was at room temperature. The ground almonds almost ran out before the measuring cup was filled, but there was just enough! Another disaster averted. As you can see from the slice above, I really needed all that filling. The recipe below has been adjusted so the filling is what you see in the photo above.

The final mistake was not realizing that a thicker filling would require a longer baking time. Again, I was fortunate because I had the time I'd allowed for cooling...and I used it all! The pie went from the oven to the carrier. Once we got to our destination I asked the hostess to put the pie in the fridge to cool while we visited and ate. Even so, the very center was a bit warm.

Was it worth it? Yes! It was an awesome pie, everyone loved it and offers to leave some for the hosts were accepted (which is not always the case). Sweetie and I enjoyed a slice last night to finish it off.

I made this with fresh apricots which I blanched and peeled. You can also use canned apricot halves and still have a delicious pie. The fresh apricot season is pretty short so it's nice to know that there is another option. Of course you can also use another fruit with the frangipane filling...anything that goes well with almonds will work well...fresh pitted cherries, especially sour cherries would be awesome a would most berries.

The apricot jam on the bottom crust and on the tops of the apricots after baking (for shine) really is optional, but you do get a bit more apricot flavor that way.

Apricot Frangipane Pie

Serves 8

Prepare the crust:

Make your own favorite pie dough recipe for a single crust or use
Pillsbury Readycrust or similar packaged pie dough circles, as I did

Let the dough come to room temperature, then roll to a 12-inch diameter circle. Carefully transfer dough circle to a pie plate and shape dough to the sides of the pan. Turn under the edges and flute. If using a metal pan, place in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. If using glass or ceramic skip that step.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put the rack in the center of the oven.

Remove tart shell from freezer.  Line the prepared pan with parchment and fill with pie weights. I use lentils or dry beans and they work great!

Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on a rack. Remove the parchment and pie weights carefully and use the back of a spoon to gently press down any puffed crust, then bake another few minutes to let the bottom fully bake. Let crust cool. When cool, if desired, brush bottom of crust with apricot jam, using a pastry brush.

Prepare the frangipane filling:

6 tablespoons soft butter or margarine

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons 

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups almond flour or mixed nut flour

10 apricot halves, peeled, pitted, and patted dry
1/4 cup apricot jam, warmed (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

To make the filling:  Beat together the butter, salt, sugar, flour, and almond extract.

Beat in the eggs, then add the almond flour, stirring just to combine.

To assemble the tart: Spread the filling in the bottom of the crust.

Place the apricot halves in a pattern on top of the filling, pressing them down gently so the bottom of the fruit is covered.

Bake the tart in the preheated 350 degree F oven for 45 to 40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Filling will puff up around the apricots.  Cool slightly or completely before serving. If desired, brush the tops of the apricots with apricot jam, using a pastry brush.

Pie Crust

Since pie was Dad's favorite dessert, it was important to learn how to make a good pie crust. Mom had me read a cookbook that had 6 pages on how to create a flaky pie crust. I read it through twice and then tried to put what I had read to work, with assistance from Mom. My crust was a success!

That was the first time I realized how well I could learn from a cookbook. It was the start of a life-long love affair with both cooking and cookbooks.

2-Crust Pie Pastry

a non-dairy variation of Mom's recipe

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 oz.) non dairy margarine (or butter), cut into 8 pieces
1/4 cup shortening
Ice water - about 1/2 cup

Have all ingredients cold. I froze the margarine overnight, put the flour and shortening in the freezer for 15 minutes and had icy cold water ready, too.

Place flour and salt into a bowl and mix together. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut the margarine and shortening into the flour until mixture resembles coarse meal. There may be some pea-sized pieces of fat, but most will be very small.

Sprinkle water, a tablespoon at a time, over mixture, stirring gently with a fork until all is moistened (6-8 tablespoons). Press dough gently into a ball. Divide into two equal pieces and make each into a flattened ball. Wrap in plastic and chill before rolling out.

Roll out each piece in turn until it is slightly larger than the pie tin. Keep the piece not being rolled in the plastic wrap. Once rolled out, fit the rolled dough into the pit tin. Trim the edges so that about an inch to an inch and a half hangs down from the rim. Fold that extra dough under and flute the edges.

Now you are ready to fill your unbaked pie shell.

Pie

A few years ago my nephew and sister interviewed my Mom, asking her questions about many things, including how things were when she was growing up. One of the things I remember from her answers was her description of food shopping in New York City. She lived in the Bronx in an apartment and this was before there were super markets. Instead of a huge store with all kinds of foods for sale, there were lots of small stores that specialized in meat, staples like beans and rice and flour and sugar, fruit and vegetable sellers, and so on. She mentioned that people generally didn't bake much because it was so convenient to by baked goods at bakeries. The exception in her family was pies. Her mother apparently made great pies. I think she inherited that skill because my Mom makes exceptional pies. My Dad's favorite dessert was always fruit pies, with the fruit changing according to what was in season.

I enjoy making pies, too, especially small pies. It isn't that I don't enjoy full sized pies, but there is something winsome about a personal pie, sized just for one. Sometimes I make mini-galettes, a kind of open faced little freeform pie, made without a pie pan. Sometimes I use a tart pan and make small tarts. A favorite is hand pies where you fold the dough over the filling and seal it...and it is always a small pie to fit your hand. Today I made some mini-galettes and one hand pie (although the hand pie was a bit larger than usual).

I used the apricots that Sweetie bought out on Highway 12 from the strawberry farm for some of the galettes. I used some plums from our tree for others. The hand pie had sliced strawberries from that farm near the Grange.

They all had 'moondust' on the bottom to soak up the fruit juices that are released when the fruit heats up.

It's a combination of almond flour and amaretti crumbs which give a nice almond accent to the fruit, plus flour and sugar. It's one of the secrets from Chez Panisse. When baking the galettes or hand pies, it's also helpful to use a baking or pizza stone if you have one because, for these small pies, the crust is just amazing! It's tender, buttery, and flaky. If you bake the pies on the hot stone in a hot oven the bottom crust is also nicely crisp.

When I was a girl and wanted to learn how to make pies, the first thing I had to do was to read about 6 pages in The Settlement House Cookbook on making pie crust dough. Then my Mom quizzed me on what I had read. That may seem like a bit much, but , truly, pie crust dough making is all about technique. Too much working of the dough and it gets tough. Too little water and it is hard to roll out. Too warm a water and the butter starts to change consistency, so you lose the flakiness. I like this Galette Dough recipe from Chez Panisse because they divide the butter and cut 1/3 of it in very fine for tenderness, then cut in the rest so that butter pieces are larger, for flakiness.

This crust is phenomenal. If you follow the recipe carefully you will have mini-galettes (or a large galette if you prefer) that everyone will rave over. If you pack them carefully you will have an excellent dessert for any picnic or for 4th of July gatherings. For the 4th you can combine white peaches, blueberries and raspberries for the fruit. Just remember to make extra because one barely seems like enough...they are that good! You can even think fondly of my grandmother when you bake yours...I do.

Now don't be shy. You can make a cherry pie, or an apricot one, or peach, nectarine, raspberry, blackberry and so on. It's the perfect time of year for it and here is the perfect recipe.

Fruit Galette
An open face tart/pie with fruit filling, from Chez Panisse Fruit
10 oz. galette dough, rolled into a 14-inch circle ( or into 4 6-inch circles for mini galettes), and chilled (see recipe below)
1/4 cup almond-amaretti powder (see recipe below)
1 1/2 pounds ripe fruit, single or a mixture.
                Apricot, nectarine, peach, plum, pluot, apple, cherry, or any kind of berry are all good
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place a pizza stone, if you have one, on a lower rack.

Remove the prerolled dough from the refrigerator or freezer and place on a buttered or parchment-lined baking sheet. Evenly sprinkle the almond-amaretti powder over the pastry, leaving a 1 1/2 -inch border unsprinkled. (For mini-galettes, leave about 1 inch unsprinkled.)

Cut the fruit in half, quarters, or slices, making sure to remove any pits. Peel fruit if desired. Arrange the fruit (skin side down if there is skin) in concentric circles on the dusted dough, making a single layer of snugly touching fruit pieces and leaving the border bare.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the fruit evenly. (For the mini-galettes, use 1 tablespoon sugar, sprinkled, for each of 4 mini-galettes.) (Note: my fruit was so ripe that I used about 1/4 teaspoon per mini-galette.) While rotating the tart, fold the border of exposed dough up and over itself at regular intervals, crimping and pushing it up against the outer circle of fruit, creating a containing rim that resembles a length of rope. Pinch off any excess dough. This rim must act as a dam, preventing juices from escaping while cooking, so make sure there are no folds or wrinkles that would permit such a breach. Brush the border gently with melted butter and sprinkle it with 2 tablespoons of sugar. (For mini-galettes, create the rope border, as described above, for each one, brush with melted butter and sprinkle each with 2 teaspoons sugar.) (Note: I didn't create the rope, just folded the dough into pleats as I went around the galette.)

Bake in the lower third of the oven, preferably on a pizza stone) for about 45 - 50 minutes (25 - 30 for the mini-galettes), until the crust is well browned and its edges are slightly caramelized. As soon as the galette is out of the oven, use a large metal spatula to slide it off the baking sheet or parchment paper and onto a cooling rack. This keeps the pastries from steaming and getting soggy. Let cool for 20 minutes.

If desired, glaze the tart by brushing with melted, strained jam or jelly. Apricot or apple is traditional for light fruits, raspberry or currant for darker fruits. Let the glaze set before serving the tart(s).

 

 Almond-Amaretti Powder (Moondust)

1/4 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup amaretti, pulverized

Toss all the ingredients together. Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, this keeps for a few months. One galette uses 1/4 cup (1/4th) of this recipe.

Galette Dough

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
7 tablespoons ice water

Follow the directions carefully. This is one of those recipes where the technique and quantities really affect the outcome.

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of the small dice of  butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, mixing until the dough resembles coarse cornmeal. (Butter is dispersed throughout the flour in tiny pieces makes the dough tender.)

Cut in the remaining 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of the small dice of butter with the pastry blender, just until the biggest pieces of butter are the size of large peas - or a little larger. (These bigger pieces of butter in the dough make it flaky.)

Dribble 7 tablespoons of ice water (that's 1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon) into the flour mixture in several stages, tossing and mixing between additions, until the dough just holds together. Toss the mixture with your hands, letting it fall through your fingers. Do not pinch or squeeze the dough together or you will overwork it, making it tough. Keep tossing the mixture until it starts to pull together; it will look rather ropy, with some dry patches. If it looks like there are more dry patches than ropy parts, add another tablespoon of water and toss the mixture until it comes together.

Divide the dough in half, firmly press each half into a ball, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, pressing down to flatten each ball into a 4-inch disk. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. (The dough will keep in the freezer for a few weeks.)

When you are ready to roll out the dough, take one disk from the refrigerator at a time. Let it soften slightly so that it is malleable, but still cold. Unwrap the dough and press the edges of the disk so that there are no cracks. On a lightly floured surface roll out the disk into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Brush off excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush. Transfer the dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate at least 1/2 hour before using. (the rolled-out circles can be frozen and used the next day.)

Makes about 20 oz. dough, enough for 2 open galettes or tarts or 1 covered tart or 12 mini galettes.