Here’s my latest concoction from Rose’s recipes, using one of my all-time favorite fruits, fresh apricots. Not very interesting eaten plain, they really shine when poached or baked.
The crust is a blind baked almond pate sucre from the Pie/Pastry Bible, with the only change being that I lightly toasted the almonds before making the crust. The apricots are poached according to the recipe in the back section of PPB, then glazed with a little apricot jam, thinned with some of the poaching liquid. I found it a little tricky to time the poaching right- it seems like they go from hard to overcooked and mushy in about 30-60 seconds. Better too firm than too soft. These may have had just a few seconds too long, you can sort of see how the skins are a tad loose and wrinkly.
The marscapone cream started out as the cream cheese stabilized whipped cream from RHC, subbing marscapone for the cream cheese. However, I was thinking that this was going to be a bit like whipped cheesecake, and instead it was basically whipped cream with only the merest whisper of marscapone flavor (I used all heavy cream instead of half creme fraiche/half heavy cream). So I took the remainder of the marscapone (about 5oz) and whipped it with a little sugar and vanilla, then folded in about an equal volume of the marscapone-stabilized whipped cream. The result wasn’t as tangy as cheese cake, but did have the denser texture and vanilla flavor that I was hoping for. Next time I’ll be interested to try the creme fraiche version.
Oh, Julie, that’s very beautiful. It’s nice to know that apricots brighten with cooking them—they’re so good dried, and so disappointing fresh, it’s good to know the cooking improves them! The filling sounds wonderful, and thanks for the notes on “rescuing” it. That looks just amazingly delicious!
Apricots do improve dramatically with cooking, the trick is to time it right because whether baking or poaching, the window of perfect doneness is small. I also just toss them in the oven until the round shapes just barely begin to wilt, then cool and serve over ice cream with honey on the apricots to sweeten them.
So happy to think of you baking from the PPB, it’s my favorite of the three Bibles And there was a month-long Challenge on cookbooker for the PPB, so you can look up reviews and comments on loads of recipes. Have fun!
Thanks for all the apricot/PPB info! Do you think apricots would go well with Rose’s white chocolate ganache/mousse (white chocoalte/cream/egg white), or do you think they have too much “bite”?
Anne, I do think apricots (or any tart fruit- lemon, raspberry, etc.) pair well with white chocolate. I used melted white chocolate (brushed in as thin a coat as I could manage) to moisture-proof the almond sugar crust. White chocolate (or cocoa butter) is a very effective moisture barrier.
What will you make first from the PPB? I recommend the cream cheese crust- check the heavy cream update on Rose’s blog
I recommend the cream cheese crust- check the heavy cream update on Rose’s blog
All of the on-line instructions call for a food processor, and I don’t have one—I expect the book will have “by hand” instructions, as well. I actually got it for all of the fruit treatments you all refer to, although I do want to make pies, too! Hubby just checked, and it’s not outside the door yet! Rats!
Is the vinegar still part of the recipe? For some reason, I was thinking that that’s been replaced with something else, but I could be remembering wrong…
I almost always do it by hand, and there are instructions in the book. I skip the plastic bags in favor of an extra pass or two with the rolling pin, but my father likes using the bags, so different strokes. The heavy cream replaces only the water, but it’s easy to get confused because to figure out the right amount, you add up the volume of the vinegar and the water (but leave the vinegar in- it’s yummy).
Lovely, lovely and I have a basket of fresh apricots on hand!! I have a Mascarpone(with cream cheese) tart recipe from Anna Olson that I have made as a rhubarb tart but I’m thinking it would work well here…it’s essentially a no-bake type cheese-cake filling that uses mascarpone and cream cheeses and whipped cream—it would go well with most fruit (with variations to flavouring—almond extract vs. vanilla)... PM me if you’d like the recipe (I got if from a magazine)—although it sounds similar to what you’ve done.
I meant to ask…do you always add the vinegar with the cream? I find my cream cheese crust shrinks alot even with refrigeration so perhaps keeping the vinegar would help. I don’t think I’m overworking it….I find it rolls much nicer once recycled (I think it gets worked more in that case).
I mix the cream and vinegar in a little bowl and pop it in the fridge just before I begin rolling the butter into flakes. Then it’s easy to add at the end .
Sherrie, you’re probably doing all this, but just to list everything in case it helps others, here goes.
For less shrinking:
-Work cream cheese into flour well- goal is to try to coat the flour with cream cheese so it can’t form too much gluten.
-Use flour with less protein- I like Wondra, but also used gold medal’s bleached AP sometimes (it shrinks more than Wondra).
-Be sure to use the optional baking powder.
-Be sure to include the cider vinegar and use heavy cream instead of water.
-Don’t overwork the dough or add too much liquid.
-Perhaps most important of all, don’t overbake- even a little overbaking can lead to shrinking. Golden is better than russet.
