Apricot and Sesame Seed Pie

New easier crust recipe

Who said  ‘ Easy as pie’? I never conceded that is true, wait, compared to what? Anyway, the key element of pie in my opinion is of course the CRUST. You need to have a flaky, buttery, biscuit like crust. I tried many crust recipes over the years…I have a few favorites…check my past crust recipe here, here and here.
Less fussy though the taste is as good as other professional recipes. The fruits I incorporated is apricot because I had to do something with the leftovers…ah, oh…some are already too ripey!…You can use any of your favorite stone fruits for this. The aroma of toasty sesame seeds is really something.

Ingredients and Instruction for one 8 inch tart ring or pie pan (Print Recipe Here)

Make the crust (I recommend making the dough the night before)

Necessary equipment: food scale, sifter

• 1 medium egg yolk (about 20g)
• 20g cold water
• 3g sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 100g butter room temperature
• 160g low viscosity flour(薄力粉), sifted

1. In a small bowl, put egg yolk and beat well, add water, sugar and salt and mix well. Refrigerate the egg mixture for 30 minutes.
   
2. Put butter in a large bowl and cream it with a wooden spatula. Add flour all at once and incorporate by cutting in with spatula’s edge but never swirl until the mixture resembles oatmeal, do not over mix.
   
   
   
     
3. Add chilled egg mixture and combine by cutting motion until the mixture just comes together. Again, do not over mix here either. Do this as fast as possible before the egg warms up. Form a disk, wrap tight with plastic sheet. Refrigerate for 4 hours or more.
   
   
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fruits compote

You may skip this ‘compote’ process for a less-calorie version

• Stone fruits – number of fruits determine by it’s size – lay the halved and pitted fruits (do not peel skin) inside of pan plus two more (fruits will shrink in cooking process). Weigh the fruits.
  
  
• Sugar – about 30% of fruits weight.  Note: I used less than 30% and it was still too sweet!
• Water – 10% of fruits weight

1. Place fruits in the pot. Add sugar, water the put lid on to cook fruits on medium heat. 
2. When the steam starts coming out between the pot and the lid then reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes and turn off the heat. Remove the lid and cool completely in the pan.

Almond cream

• 80g butter, room temperature
• 70g sugar
• 65g eggs (about 1 and 1/2 eggs), beaten. keep in the refrigerator until needed, Note: beat two eggs very well in a bowl then weigh, take away the potion you don’t need.
• 80g Almond flour, whisk to remove large lumps.
  

1. With the same whisk you used for almond flour, cream butter in a large bowl. Add sugar, whisk until the mixture turn to light color and fluffy.
   
2. Add chilled egg 1/3 at a time. beat well after each addition.
   
3. Add almond flour. Mix well with spatula.
   

Assemble and bake

1. With the crust dough in between plastic wrap, roll the dough with rolling pin and fit in the ring or pie pan you’re using. Note: take out dough from refrigerator 10 minutes before start of assembly, other wise dough will be too cold and tough to handle.
2. Heat oven to 390F. Spread 1/2 of almond cream in the bottom of crust. *Pat dry the fruits compote with paper towel and lay on the top of almond cream. *Not necessary but it may be too watery.
   
   
   
   
3. Spread rest of almond butter cream on top of the fruits.
   
    
4. Sprinkle evenly with white sesame seeds 1/4 cup or more on top. Bake for 1 hour. Cover the pie with aluminum foil halfway through. Serve warm with a scoop of  vanilla ice cream if you like.
   
   
    

From last week’s Tapas instagram post (#todaystapas) – Blabassoppa (Swedish blueberry drink) is a thick, warm juice I’ve come to love! The recipe I discovered from “Thirsty for…’ YouTube video, thanks to Linda’s Peaceful Place blog.

And this Fruits Gyoza made from fresh mango, cranberry relish, cream cheese, lemon, cinnamon…Truly scrumptious!…Honest! (love the movie!).

Garden jewel..semi-wild strawberries on our front yard….precious!

Wishing you pleasant weather!

P.S. Somehow the tool I have used for years to write my blog is not working, so this is not as good looking as my usual posts. I hope they get it fixed before next week's post.