Apricot Tart

A Provençal and Roussillon farmhouse pastry — apricot orchards have grown in the Rhône valley and Roussillon since the Middle Ages, with the prized Bergeron variety established near Valence in the 1920s. The tart is the household use for fruit too ripe to ship: split, sugared, baked into pâte sablée at the height of the late-June to mid-July season.

Provençal summer pâtisserie — pâte sucrée shell, frangipane base, halved Roussillon apricots cut-side up. The acidity of the fruit is what keeps the almond cream from cloying.

Halved apricots cut-side up on a thin pâte sablée or shortcrust, sometimes over a layer of frangipane, glazed after baking with reduced apricot jam. The fruit caramelizes at the edges; the cut faces concentrate sourness as the juice cooks off. Eaten warm or at room temperature, never cold from the fridge — that flattens the perfume.

Apricot is high in pectin and acid, low in sugar — it needs help. Cooks salt the cut sides briefly to draw water, dust with sugar, sometimes blot before baking; otherwise the tart goes soggy. The post-bake jam glaze isn't decoration — it seals the surface and lifts the perfume that escapes during baking. Use under-ripe fruit and the tart is sour and dry; over-ripe and it floods.