Pistachio Crusted Stone Fruit Tart

First off, let me just say sorry for the lack of photos with this recipe, it was a cloudy day when I made it, so natural lighting wasn’t that great, and before I managed to snap some photos of it all shiny and done up on our Mother’s Day brunch table, it had been sliced into and devoured. Who am I to stop them from eating a ridiculously good tart.

Originally I wanted to create this tart with apricots instead. But this harsh East Coast winter has made it almost impossible to find decent apricots worthy of eating or baking with. The markets aren’t brimming with a bountiful supply, enough for me to make this ice cream or the tart I set out to make. I did manage to come home with enough to include just a bit of these luscious little fruits in this tart, which I am now thankful I didn’t have enough apricots for, because I’ve pretty much created my signature stone fruit pie. This tart is a true ode to spring fruits.
I was almost to quick to add fresh blueberries into the mix, when I realized I had scored with spring plums and cherries too, which are only now slowly emerging in the markets. Of course these fruits are delicious eaten fresh, but baking them together, with just a hint of added sugar, well it’s just out of this world good. But this tart wasn’t that simple, the fruit got something special thrown in, a bit of St. Germaine. I’m literally obsessed with this liquor, if a cocktail has it, I’m most likely ordering.

So what do I do with a new, pretty, bottle I just bought, of course bake with it. You don’t really taste it, but you do get a “je ne sais quoi” flavor after each bite. The dough was not a classic pie dough or pate sable either, but a flaky puff pastry, which then got sprinkled with salted pistachios. Yes, I took it there. Roasted nuts make any dessert even more amazing, and they’re just the right amount of saltiness.

Keep your cupcake or cream filled pastries, because this girl prefers plenty of baked fruit on just a sliver of dough. Tarts and pies are simple, but their natural flavors and sweetness triumphs anything covered in buttercream, at least in my book.

If I was in Portugal I would be making this tart every chance I could, with endless trees of dark and yellow plums, peaches, nectarines, and cherries on our farm, the creations would be endless! But for now I’ll indulge myself in this stone fruit goodness until it’s devoured completely, and you can too. Use your favorite stone fruits to create a tart that is deliciously spring!

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Pistachio Crusted Stone Fruit Tart 

Ingredients 

1 1/3 sheets – Puff Pastry

5 cups – Assorted Chopped Stone Fruits {I used 2 cups Plums, 2 cups Cherries, 1 cup Apricots}

1/4 cup – Agave {Replace with granulated or brown sugar if desired}

1 teaspoon – Pure Vanilla Extract

Juice of half a Lemon

1 teaspoon – St. Germaine liquor {optional}

1/4 cup – Roasted Pistachios {optional, replace with any nut of choice}

Milk, for brushing

Raw Cane Sugar, for sprinkling

2 tablespoons – Honey {heated a few seconds}

Recipe

Preheat oven to 375*F, spray a 9″ tart pan with cooking spray and line a baking sheet parchment paper. Unroll the puff pastry sheet, and gently fit into the pan, letting the excess hang over about 2″ in triangle shapes. Use the extra 1/3 piece of puff pastry to create triangle pieces to fit the remaining edges. In a food processor, pulse the pistachios, finely to medium chopped.

In a bowl, combine the halved cherries, chopped plums and apricots with the agave/sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and St. Germaine. Pour the filling into the prepared tart pan, along with the excess juices. Fold over the edges of puff pastry to create a star effect. Brush the edges with milk, and sprinkle with pistachios and cane sugar.

Bake until pastry is golden brown, and juices bubble {about 50 to 60  minutes}. Rotate tart halfway, brushing edges with a bit more milk. Place onto a cooling rack, and run knife around edges to release slightly. Cool completely, and remove tart from pan. Brush fruit with warm honey just before serving. Refrigerate, wrapped in plastic up to 4 days.

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