Apricot Blackberry Tart with Rye Crust

Warning y'all, I'm in a Law & Order SVU k-hole. It comes after an abnormally demanding couple of days at my job and just before the onslaught of six straight 17-hour work days i.e., my organization's annual conference. I'm spending my last few hours of respite thinking about pie and cocktails and watching a ten-year-old sociopath terrorize a father played by Agent Cooper. Joey and I (but mostly I) had a bad habit of watching probably six episodes of SVU at a time until Joey moved to Argyle and left me here to watch SVU on my ownsome while feeding a fear of our basement (total serial killer hideout!).  

Well and so this tart. Joey successfully unleashed me from SVU's stranglehold last weekend when he came down to DC for a quick, two-night visit. We traipsed from one quadrant of DC to another, exclusively for gluttonous, double dinners and cocktails, and especially for ramen (at Toki Underground -- you have to go!) and for friends (they are the best!). And suddenly it was 2 a.m. on Saturday night when I realized that I hadn't baked the second of two of these tarts yet and that Joey was leaving at the crack of Sunday dawn. So we slept some, baked the tart, ate it, and kissed faretheewell until next time. But before Joey got on his train, he did declare this tart to be "it," and I think it almost worked magic in getting him to come back forever.

And anyway, this recipe makes two jammy, flaky, sweet, and tart tarts in what Kimberly Boyce calls a crust made “sweet and milky” by the use of rye flour. She recommends the tart dough for any fruit, particularly apricots and boysenberries together, and while my farmers market is woefully short on boysenberries, we have an abundance of blackberries and soon enough plums. Pears too. And I am officially hooked on Boyce’s palate. I mean, after her rhubarb tarts, whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies, iced oatmeal cookies, honey amaranth cookies, multigrain pear pancakes, quinoa cookies, and ginger peach muffins, I sorta already was. Definitely pick up a copy of her cookbook. It will blow your mind.

Apricot Blackberry Tart with Rye Crust                 

Adapted from Kim Boyce’s recipe for Apricot Boysenberry Tart

Makes two tarts

Boyce's recipe calls for homemade jam so I cut back the amount used since I was suspicious of how sweet commercial jam would be. I've noted below where my take strays from hers.

For rye dough
1 cup rye flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ sticks cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Ice water

1.  Sift the flours, sugar, and salt into a large bowl, dumping any grains that remain in the sifter back into the bowl. Cut the butter into half-inch pieces and add to the mixture. Rub the butter between your fingers to break it into smaller bits, until the butter ranges in size from hazelnuts to peas; work quickly!

2.  Add the vinegar and eight tablespoons of ice water to the mixture, using a rubber spatula or your hands to cut the liquid through the dry ingredients. The dough should come together as one shaggy lump. Squeeze it together to see if a ball forms, and if it’s too dry, add more water one tablespoon at a time until dough comes together. Pile the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, sprinkle with a few dots of water, wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

3.   (This next bit is a tad technical, but folding and rolling the dough like this creates seriously flaky layers of pastry.) Unwrap the dough on a floured surface and pat it into square. Roll it out to a rectangle that’s roughly 8 ½ by 11 inches. The dough will be crumbly, but fear not! It will come together. For the first turn, fold the dough in thirds like a letter; the seam should be on the left. Rotate the dough so that the seam is at the top and parallel to your body, and roll out into an 8 ½ by 11 rectangle again. Fold and roll again, and repeat the process for a third, final time. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for another hour.

For filling and finishing

1 ¼ cup apricot jam (suspecting sweetness, I cut this back to 1 cup total)

2 pounds ripe apricots

2 to 4 tablespoons sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit

1 ½ cups boysenberries (I used blackberries)

1 egg

¼ cup raw sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1.  Cut the apricots in half, discard the pits, and toss the halves into a large bowl. Add the sugar and toss to coat. Gently stir 1/2 cup of jam into apricots; each piece of fruit should be lightly coated with jam.  In a separate bowl, toss the berries with another ¼ cup of jam, careful to keep the berries whole.

2.  To shape dough, divide it in half and keep the second half in the fridge while you work. Roll your dough on a lightly floured surface into a 15-inch circle. Transfer the circle to the back of a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

3.  To assemble tart, smear ¼ cup of jam (I halved this and used two tablespoons) across the crust. Pile on half the apricots and half the blackberries, tucking berries into the nooks. Working from the edges, fold the crust into the center, pleating as needed; there should be about three inches of crust showing.  Using the same procedure, make the second tart.  Freeze both tarts for at least an hour.

4.  Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk your egg with a splash of water until no streaks remain, and brush the tops of crusts with it.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl, and toss it generously and evenly over both tarts. Bake tarts for 60 to 70 minutes, rotating pan halfway through, until crust is deep golden brown and filling is bubbling. If you only want to make one, keep the second unbaked tart wrapped in the freezer for up to one month.

Summer Peach Pie

Summer, y'all. The season sticks around like molasses in the mid-Atlantic, but the produce disappears from week to week. My farmer said on Saturday that the window for apricots is going to be three weeks this year, and sour cherries were around for just two, so we had best be on our pit fruits wits! In the meantime, there's work to skip and quarries to swim, and two weeks ago I went way up north to visit Joey in his new tiny town of Argyle, New York, just a heartbeat away from the Adirondacks and around the corner from a killing of farmstand doughnuts.

There was also the blow-out bulgogi BBQ curated by my whipsmart, hilarious, and visiting big sister, and in the past two weeks there has been a series of roaring summer storms that have ripped through the city while we watch from the porch with beers like how our mom does. The dance parties have been supremely sweaty and the karaoke extra romantic, and every weekend someone is rattling off the names of beaches to infiltrate (side note: dudes, let's go). By the time fall rolls around (in like, December), I'm usually so tired of summer that I could just spit, but this year has felt a little more urgent, a little more important.

I'm not trying to get sick of summer anytime soon, which brings us back to pit fruit. And this peach pie. And last weekend when we sat in the kitchen hungover watching the Kennedys miniseries (it's just the worst!), and it was all I could do to make three fruit pies and pay homage to summer in my inside, Sunday way too. Guys, this pie is so rad, and you have to make it. 

Summer Peach Pie

Blind baking fruit pies is awesome because it prevents the bottom crust from getting soggy. You don't have to do it, but I totally love that there is a way to guarantee crispy crust on both sides. If you don't want to go to the trouble, put the bottom dough in unbaked, fill it, top it with the top crust, freeze for 45 minutes, then do the egg wash, and bake away as directed below.

1 recipe all-butter flaky pie dough (instructions and ingredients over here!)

4 pounds ripe peaches

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2  tablespoons tapioca flour or cornstarch

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into little pieces

2 tablespoons raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1.  After your pie crust has done its requisite one-hour stint in the fridge, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Roll out one-half of the crust to a 12-inch circle, and fit into a nine-inch standard pie pan. Trim the overhang to a half-inch all around, fold the edges of the dough under, and crimp. Place a piece of foil shiny side down onto the crust, fill with pie weights or dried beans, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for five to ten minutes more, until crust is lightly golden brown; let crust cool while you carry on. Turn oven down to 375 degrees for the pie.

2.  Meanwhile, blanch and peel your peaches. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut an X into the bottom of each peach, and boil three or four at a time for 15 seconds (if your peaches aren't utterly ripe, you may need to go to 20 or 25 to more easily remove the skins; test one peach to find out). With a slotted spoon, remove peaches to a big bowl. Continue to blanch peaches in rounds, bringing water to a full boil between each set. Then, starting at the Xs, press, slide, and peel the fuzzy skins off; cut peeled peaches into one-inch slices and toss into a large bowl.

3.  Mix the sugar and vanilla into the peaches and allow to macerate for about 30 minutes. Drain a little of the resulting peach juice into a small bowl, and whisk the tapioca flour into it to dissolve. Then toss the flour and juice back into the bowl of peaches; stir to combine. 

4.  Mound your filling into the baked bottom pie crust. Roll out the top crust to a 12-inch circle, and follow these instructions if you want to make a lattice top. Since the bottom crust is baked, you'll need to tuck the edges of the lattice strips under themselves instead of under the lip of the bottom crust; no big deal! Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a little bowl, whisk the egg to oblivion and brush the top of your crust with it, then cover it with the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Put pie on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake for one hour, or until filling is bubbling and crust is deep golden brown.