Ricotta Apricot Tart Recipes

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.

SICILIAN RICOTTA TART

Steps:

• For the Tart Dough: This recipe works best with very cold butter. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes. Since butter softens rapidly with handling, return the cubes to the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes while you set up the food processor and gather the dry ingredients. Place the flour, sugar, and kosher salt, in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse on/off a few times to combine. Add the butter, tossing quickly with a spatula to coat each cube with flour. This prevents the butter cubes from adhering together and helps them to break apart and combine more evenly with the flour. Pulse on and off 15 times until the butter particles are the size of small peas. With the motor running, add the ice water all at once through the feed tube. Process for about 10 seconds, stopping the machine before the dough becomes a solid mass. Turn the contents of the bowl onto a sheet of aluminum foil, pressing any loose particles into the mass of dough. Roughly form the dough into a 7-inch disk. Cover the dough completely with aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until ready to use. The dough may be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks. Let dough rest in refrigerator until needed.
• For the Tart: Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll out each portion of dough on a floured surface into 9-inch free form circles, about 3/8-inch thick, and transfer to baking sheets. Cover and chill the dough while you prepare the filling. Mix the ricotta, egg yolks, tangerine peel, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir with a rubber spatula until well combined. Scatter the chopped dates over the surface of the tart shell leaving a 1 1/2-inch border around the outside edge. Spoon the filling over the dates and raise the dough border to enclose the sides of the tart. Press down on the dough where if forms pleats to secure. Bake the tart for 15 to 18 minutes, in preheated 450 degrees, until the crust is golden and the filling is just set. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm.

RICOTTA PEACH TART

Steps:

• Put an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• Place the puff pastry between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out a bit to make a 9-by-10-inch rectangle. Remove the top piece of paper. Use the tip of a sharp knife to gently score the dough, without cutting all the way through, 1 inch from the edges all the way around. Transfer to a sheet pan and store in the freezer while you prepare the peaches.
• Cut the peaches into 1-inch wedges. Toss them with 1 tablespoon honey. Remove the dough from the freezer, sprinkle on the thyme, and arrange the peaches in a single layer on top, leaving the border clear.
• Bake the tart until the crust is deep golden-brown and the peaches are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and cool slightly before serving. Cut into squares, top each with a dollop of ricotta, and drizzle some honey over the cheese.

APRICOT RICOTTA TART

Steps:

• For the pastry crust: Mix 1 1/3 sticks softened butter with the granulated sugar, powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 Tbsp. rum, 1 egg, and 1 egg yolk. Combine the ingredients well. Add the flour, the cornstarch, and the lemon zest. Knead to obtain a soft and even dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
• For the filling: Mix the ricotta until soft and creamy. Beat the remaining egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar and 2 Tbsp. Disaronno liqueur. Stir in the almonds. Whisk in the ricotta.
• For the caramelized apricots: Cut the apricots in half and remove the pits. Caramelize 1/4 cup sugar in a pan with 1 Tbsp. butter; add the apricots and baste with 2 Tbsp. Disaronno liqueur. Cook for a few minutes; turn off the heat and let rest.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Cover the dough with a sheet of parchment paper, fill the pan with dried beans, and bake at 350°F for around 15 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment paper and bake for another 5 minutes to let the crust dry out. Remove the crust from the oven, fill it with the cream, and bake again at 350°F for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with the caramelized apricots and their juice. Let the tart cool and serve.

APRICOT & RICOTTA TORTE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/gas 3. Tip all the ingredients for the base, except for the egg, into a food processor and blend until like breadcrumbs. Add the egg and blend again to make a paste. Scrape onto the base of a greased 24cm loose-bottomed springform tin, spread with a spatula then bake for 25 minutes until risen and just set.
• Meanwhile beat the ricotta in a bowl with the eggs, soured cream, sugar and vanilla, then when the base has had its 25 minutes, take it out of the oven. Quickly scatter the apricots over the base and pour the cheese mixture on top. Return to the oven for 50 minutes more until the mixture has set and is starting to turn golden round the edges.
• Run a knife round the cake to release it from the sides of the tin then cool and chill. You can make this a day ahead.
• Transport the tin covered with cling film or foil, then turn out and dust with icing sugar when you get there.

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.

APRICOT, ALMOND AND RICOTTA CAKE

Steps:

• heat oven to 190 beat butter, ricotta, eggs and sugar together fold in the flour and ground almonds spoon half the batter into lined tin put jam evenly over middle put remaining half batter on top of jam put apricot quarters on top of the mixture, arranged evenly scatter over flaked almonds and 1 tbsp caster sugar
• Bake for 1.5 hours or until cake has risen, cooked and apricots shrivelled and caramelised leave to cool