Apricots on Paté Sablée

I was grocery shopping in France last Saturday and found wonderful looking and smelling apricots from the Rhone region. I could not resist and bought a kilo even knowing that with all the other fruits I already had in my shopping cart I was going to have a problem to eat them before they get overripe.

This morning I looked at the box with all the delicious apricots and ate one. So juicy and sweet. What to do with the rest? Baking with outside temperature of 35 C is no fun, but it had to be done.

I  made a French dough called paté sablée, it is a sweet and crumbly shortcrust pastry often used in cookies too. Since it was so hot, I made the dough in the kitchen machine, cold hands were not an option today to make a "sandy" dough.

recipe for the dough:
250 g flour T405
110 g sugar
130 g butter
1 egg
4 g salt

Sieve the flour, salt and sugar into the kitchen machine and add the butter and let the knifes cut everything like sand. Make sure it does not take too long, you will heat up the dough. Add the egg and just give it 1 more minute. Put it on a work surface and bring it together and make a thick round piece of dough and wrap it and put it into the fridge for 2 hours.

With a rolling pin make a round big enough to build a wall. I used a glass baking dish, so to get it out I used baking paper. Use a fork and prick the dough.
I hate soggy bottoms, I use a second piece of baking paper and my trusted baking beans and prebaked it for 15 min at 200 C.

Filling:
800 g ripe apricots
60 g baked apple jam with raisins and almonds
200 g 40% curd
1 egg
2 tsp dark brown vanilla sugar

Clean and destone the apricots. Seperate the egg and beat the eggwhite stiff.
When the paté comes out of the oven, spread the tasty jam on the bottom and place the apricot halfs on top.
Mix egg yolk with brown vanilla sugar, curd and stiff egg white.
Spread in blobs on top of the apricots.

Bake 35 min at 200 C