Grandma's Tarte aux abricots, miel et romarin
Apricots, Honey and Rosemary Pie
AFA Instructor, Blandine Nothelfer, shares with us one of her favorite summer time recipes that brings back fond memories of her grandmother and summer days in Aduze. Blandine has created several Cook & Chat where she prepares a dish via ZOOM with a limited number of participants who will prepare a dish and learn some basics of French cooking vocabulary. These events are for Beginner/Intermediate Learners. Join her for one of these special Cook & Chat events.
Story of the recipe and tips for a successful pie
Every summer in France, I used to go spend time at my grandma in Anduze, a charming little country town in a region of an amazingly beautiful and preserved nature called Cévennes. Cévennes are also the only French National Park in which people live because locals’ way of life and traditional activities are so in symbiose with the environment that it participates to its safeguard. Among the tender memories I have from these summers is this apricot – rosemary - honey pie from my grandma, Fanette. When the season of apricots come, from May to July, baking this pie is so easy, tasty and brings me great comfort. Really, Fanette is not much of a tradition follower, so this pie is more the fruit of her creativity than a “specialty” of the region, but it’s made from ingredients found directly in her garden or produced locally.
The pie is much tastier when I do the dough myself but when you don’t have the patience or time, you can just buy a ready-made pie crust dough and place the ingredients inside right away, nothing easier. We have three type of pie dough in France: pâte brisée, pâte sablée and pâte feuilletée. The best suited for apricots is the pâte brisée.
The honey we use in the Cévennes is a honey from chestnut tree because it’s the main tree of the Cévennes so bees live and forage in vast chestnut tree forests. In fact, beehives of the Cévennes are made inside chestnut tree logs as you can see in the picture. Chestnut tree honey has a unique taste but can’t be found in the United States. A good alternative is orange blossom honey; however, you can use any honey you like as long as it’s a more liquid form.
For the apricots and the rosemary, Fanette gathers in her garden. The rosemary, who grows wild in South France, is best used fresh, not dry, for this pie. Regarding the fruits, I recommend using apricots mature enough to melt in the mouth once cooked, but not ripe to the point that they become a big marmalade when in the oven. To summarize, not hard but not too mushy.
The almond flour isn’t an indispensable ingredient, but I find that it brings this little touch of refinement and makes it even more yummy.
Finally, I like to enjoy this pie along with an espresso café, as an after-lunch desert. All the flavors remind me of the sweet perfume of a summer day in South France and are a sophisticate balance of flavors and sweetness. Enjoy!
Ingredients
For the pie crust dough (you can also buy a readymade pie-crust dough):
- 200 grams white flour (1 ¼ cups)
- 100 grams soft butter (≈ 1 stick or 4 oz or ½ cup)
- 1 egg, or 50 ml of water
- 50 grams of sugar (¼ cup)
- 1 tsp of salt
For the filling:
- 6 to 10 apricots, depending on their size
- 1/3 cup of almond flour
- 1/3 cup liquid honey
- 1 tbsp of fresh rosemary leaves
The amount of ingredients for the filling can be adjusted to your own likes.
Recipe
If you’re using a readymade pie crust dough, skip steps 1 and 4.
1. Make your pie crust dough: with your hand or a kitchen aid, mix flour, sugar, salt and butter. When sandy consistency is reached, add egg (or water). If the dough is still too sandy, you can add a tiny more water. When the dough reaches a smooth and homogeneous consistency, lay some plastic wrap, put the dough on top of it and flatten it with your hands. No need to be perfect. Recover with a second layer of plastic wrap and keep in fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat your oven at 375 F.
3. Cut the apricots in 6 slices (cut in half and then cut each half in three slices).
4. Butter a pie dish. Take the pie crust dough out of the fridge and flatten it with a rolling pin until you obtain a round shape slightly larger than your pie dish. Line the dough in the pie dish and make some holes with a fork.
5. On the bottom of the crust, sprinkle the almond flour.
6. On top of it, dispose the apricots slices following circles, from outside to inside.
7. Poor the honey on top of the apricots, to have a balanced distribution all over the pie.
8. Now sprinkle the rosemary leaves on top of it.
9. Put in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes. The edges of the dough must start browning. Let it cool down before to serve, conserve leftovers in the fridge.