About the Recipe
What You'll Love
Ingredients
Crust:
1 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (chilled)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4- 1/2 cup Cold Water
Pastry Cream:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish:
Apricots (fresh or in a halves from a jar, you will need approximately 12 apricot halves)
Mint Leaves
Powdered Sugar (optional)
Preparation
Let's begin by making the crust. I use this flaky crust for almost all of my pies and tarts. It is easy and straight forward to make and comes out flaky and delicious every single time. A family recipe that I am so happy to share with you and hope that you love it as well.
Add your flour and salt to a large mixing bowl and cube in your cold butter. Use your hands to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture until you achieve a coarse sand-like consistency.
Once you have achieved this, add in the cold water a bit at a time, again kneading the mixture with your hands as you go. Do this until you have a consistent dough ball. Do not overknead, it is ok if there are buttery chunks throughout.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and cill for a minimum of one hour. I sometimes make this dough ahead of time. you can easily freeze it and thaw it in the fridge overnight.
Once the dough has chilled, roll it out on a well floured surface so that it is large enough to cover the bottom and sides of your pie dish. The dough should be between 2-3mm thick. (This recipe is generally enough to make two pie crusts).
Place your dough in a prepared greased pie dish making sure that the dough runs up the sides as well.
Pierce the bottom of the pie crust with a fork. This will prevent the cust from puffing up too much during the baking process.
Preheat your oven to 425F.
Place your pie shell on the center rack and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is baked through and golden.
Once baked, remove it from the oven and let cool before filling it with the pastry cream.
While the crust is cooling, it is the perfect time to actually make the pastry cream.
In a medium saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat until it starts to steam. Do not let it boil.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt. Add the egg yolks and whisk until smooth and well combined.
Slowly pour about 1/2 cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to temper the eggs and prevent them from curdling.
Gradually pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk, whisking continuously.
Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and comes to a boil. This should take about 2-3 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.
Allow it to cool completely.
Once the pastry cream has cooled, carefully pour it into the baked pie shell and evenly spread it along the bottom.
Place the apricot halves, cut side down, onto the pastry cream layer.
Garnish with a few fresh mint leaves and dust the top with powdered sugar (if so desired) for a finishing touch.
Serve or place in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
For some extra indulgence, serve with a scoop of whipped cream or ice-cream.
Enjoy!