Tag: apricots

Apricot Meringue Pie

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

This is one of my favorite desserts from my Mom’s recipe notebook. The original recipe is a square shape but I like the pie shape so I transformed it to my liking 😉

My Mom used to eat it hot, straight from the oven!

It is creamy and crispy at the same time and the soft meringue on top is very silky. You can use apricot compote or fresh apricots instead of the jam, but make sure to peel the skin off and sprinkle some sugar on top.

Ingredients

  • apricot jam

Dough

  • 150 g (1 cup + 3 tbsp) all-purpose flour
  • 100 g (¾ cup) unsalted, room-temperature butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp sour cream
  • 1 tbsp white wine
  • a pinch of baking powder

Cream

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 70 g (½ cup +1 tbsp) sugar
  • 2 tsp all-purpose flour
  • 150 ml ( ½ cup + 2 tbsp) of milk

Preparation

Dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C (338 °F).
  2. Combine all the ingredients to make the dough. You can make it in the food processor or by hand.
  3. Shape the dough into a small ball and wrap it up in a cling foil.
  4. Let it rest in the refrigerator for half an hour.
  5. Roll the dough and place it in a round baking pan 20-25 cm wide. Make sure you cover the sides with the dough as well.
  6. Bake it until golden, 10-15 min.

Cream/Meringue

  1. While the pastry is baking, prepare the cream and the meringue.
  2. In a double boiler or on steam whisk egg yolks with sugar.
  3. After the sugar dissolves, add the flour and slowly pour in the milk while whisking constantly.
  4. The cream is done when it thickens.
  5. Cool it down.
  6. In a separate big bowl mix 3 egg whites with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar until stiff.

Cake

  1. When the pastry is baked, spread a thick layer of apricot jam.
  2. Pour the cream on the jam and evenly smear.
  3. In the end, pour the meringue.
  4. Bake for another 5 min at 200 °C (400 °F) until the meringue becomes golden.

Cool off before serving or eat it hot like my Mum used to do.

What is your favorite pie flavor?

Croatian Apricot and Plum Dumplings

Posted on by Jasmina Brozović

I can’t imagine a better dessert that includes potatoes. Some Croatians would disagree with me about these dumplings being a dessert. It’s still a subject of debate as many Croatians eat them as main course and not as a dessert. In other words, they just eat dessert for main course. I still prefer to have couple of soft, warm, sweet dumplings after a meal 😉

Variety of similar dumplings can be found in Eastern and Central Europe, with savory or sweet fillings. In Croatia, we usually make them with plums or apricots in the summer during the apricot and plum season. They are topped with breadcrumb and butter mixture, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. You can also serve them with sour cream as well.

Ingredients

for 16 small dumplings

  • 800 g (1.75 lb) potatoes, cooked in shell
  • 200 g (1 1/2 cup) all purpose flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 16 apricots or plums (pitted)
  • 100 g (1 cup) breadcrumbs
  • 120 g (1/2 cup) butter for the topping
  • sugar to taste
  • cinnamon to taste (or not at all, read Z’s note at the end)

I made them LIVE on AZ Entertainment’s show Savour The Flavour back in 2015.

Preparation

  1. Wash the potatoes well and cook them in the shell.
  2. Cool the cooked potatoes for 5 minutes before peeling, but don’t get them too cold as it will be harder to peel the skin off.
  3. Peeled potatoes immediately mash, add egg and butter, stir well, season with salt and add the flour.
  4. Knead the dough until compact.
  5. Pour dough on a lightly floured surface, roll out and cut into equal squares.
  6. At each square place the halves of pitted fruit, put some sugar and cinnamon (optional) on and form dumplings with hands.
  7. Place the dumplings into a pot of salted boiling water, stir gently and allow them to cook. After about 10 min dumplings will pop up to the surface and then cook them for another 5-6 minutes.
  8. During this time, in a small non stick pan, melt the butter and fry the breadcrumbs. Add more butter/breadcrumbs until you reach desired consistency.
  9. In a small dish, mix sugar with cinnamon for sprinkling.
  10. Drain the cooked dumplings and place them in a serving dish.
  11. Topped them with fried breadcrumbs and toss gently so that they don’t fall apart.

Serve hot dumplings sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and dig in!

Z’s note:
I personally find that cinnamon takes away from the apricot flavor and never use it. People often also like to put sour cream on top, when serving. What I like to do is serve dumplings, with sugar, cinnamon and sour cream separately. People then season them as they please and two people rarely do it the same way 🙂

What is your favorite dumpling filling?