We have a big country kitchen table I have always dreamt of having – filled with an abundance of fruits, flowers, vegetables, lots of kids drawing, dogs lying under and delicious home-cooked food. I get very inspired just by looking at the table, and today, I had to do something with the beautiful apricots. I ate a very light lunch and felt like having something sweet, yet tangy, so I made little apricot tartlets. They are so summery and I love the colour!

I always have a home-made pastry dough in the freezer – it’s so easy to make and convenient to store. All you have to do in de-freeze the dough, roll out little circle for the tartlet pans, slice the apricots in half, throw some sugar, mix crème fraîche, 1 egg and sugar and voilà! These are probably the easiest tartlets to make, and they are delicious.

Ingredients: (makes approx 6 tartlets)

14 apricots (cut into four, pits removed)
250 grs shortcrust pastry (home-made or bought in store)
50 grs caster sugar
20 cl crème fraîche
1 egg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
20 grs icing sugar
6 tartlet pans

Easy shortcrust pastry

250 grs plain flour
125 ml water
175 grs butter
1/4 tsp salt

Mix water with salt in a large bowl. Slice butter into cubes. Mix all ingredients together, ‘working’ the dough 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, wrap with cling film and place in the fridge for at leat an hour.

Apricot tartlets

Pre-heat the oven 180° celsius.

Rinse the apricots and pat dry. Cut them in four and remove the pits. Sprinkle with sugar.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and cut off 6 circles slightly larger than the width of your tartlet pans. (I use a round-tipped knife). Line each tartlet pan.

Whisk crème fraîche, egg, cinnamon and sugar until smooth. Pour a base into each tartlet (approx 1.5 cm deep). Place apricot slices on top. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes. When ready, take out from the oven and place on a wire tray. Leave to cool 10 minutes before serving and sprinkle with icing sugar.

I had a lovely moment by the rose garden, having a coffee, tartlets and writing some recipe notes!