Crostata with Poached Apricots and Pignolata

• 1 batch (12 ounces) Sweet Tart Dough (page 402), chilled
• 8 ounces dried apricots (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2/3 cup or more water
• 1/2 cup apricot jam, stirred to loosen
• 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (optionala nice touch but not mandatory!)
• 7 ounces (a standard package) almond paste
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 whites from large eggs
• 1 cup pine nuts
• Powdered sugar
• Whipped cream
• A 9-inch tart mold, preferably a fluted metal ring with a removable bottom
• A baking stone or oven tiles
• A food processor

1. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven with a baking stone on it, if you have one.
2. Preheat the oven to 350.
3. (If you make the shell or the apricot filling a day or hours ahead of time, turn on the oven before you assemble the tartbe sure to leave extra time for the baking stone to heat up.)
4. Roll and press the dough into the mold to form the tart shell, as detailed in the box on page 403.
5. If youre doing this ahead of time, refrigerate the tart shell so it is easier to handle and fill.
6. Put the dried apricots in a small, preferably narrow saucepan with the 2/3 cup water.
7. Cover, and bring to a boil; reduce the heat to maintain a steady simmer.
8. Cook, covered, until the apricots are soft (but not mushy) and only 2 or 3 tablespoons of poaching liquid are left in the pan, about 20 minutes.
9. If the water evaporates before the apricots have softened, add more water and continue cooking slowly.
10. Let the apricots cool in the pan with the syrupy liquid.
11. To make the apricot filling, put the cooled poached apricots and syrup in a food processor and pulse in short burstsabout 4 seconds in allto chop the apricots into a thick paste of very small bits.
12. Dont puree: the paste should be chunky.
13. Scrape the apricots into a bowl, stir in 6 tablespoons of the apricot jam, and blend well.
14. (Refrigerate filling if prepared ahead.)
15. Make the macaroon base for the pignolata when you are ready to assemble the tart and bake.
16. Crumble the almond paste into the food processor, and add the sugar.
17. Process about 30 seconds, scraping down the workbowl if necessary, so the ingredients are completely blended, with the consistency of moist sand.
18. Pour the egg whites into the machine, and process for another 30 seconds, scraping as needed, until the macaroon is a smooth white slush.
19. (If you havent heated your oven and baking stone yet, do it now.)
20. Plop the remaining 2 tablespoons of apricot jam on the bare bottom of the tart shell, and spread it to cover the bottom dough thinly.
21. Spoon the apricot filling into the tart, and spread it in an even layerit should fill almost two-thirds of your dough shell.
22. If you like, drizzle the 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk all over the apricot layer: dont bother to spread it, just streak the entire surface.
23. (This adds a subtly different kind of sweetness that you should try sometime, but the tart is excellent without it.)
24. Scrape the macaroon slush in blobs all over the top of the tart.
25. Spread it with a big spoon or spatula moistened with water (but not dripping).
26. It will be sticky, but with a little patience you can push it into a smooth, flat layer that comes right to the sides of the dough shell and covers the apricot layer (but not the dough rim) completely.
27. To finish the pignolata, sprinkle the pine nuts, just a few at a time, on top of the macaroon.
28. Take your time: you want to make a single layer of pine nuts, so dense that you cant see the macaroon at all.
29. Drop the pignoli to cover small sections, and then fill in empty spots.
30. Let them rest where you drop themdont push them into the macaroon or across the top.
31. Do not cover the rim of the dough.
32. When the tart is assembled, set the mold onto the hot baking stone.
33. If youre not using a stone, you can move and bake the tart on a baking sheet.
34. Bake for about an hour (or longer without a stone), until the pignolata and the outside tart crust are beautifully browned but not blackened.
35. Rotate the tart on the stone (or the rack) for even baking.
36. The pine nuts should brown gradually: if theyre dark within the first 30 minutes of baking, cover them with foil and lower the oven temperature if necessary; if theyre not taking on color at all in the first 1/2 hour, raise the oven temperature.
37. Let the baked tart cool completely on a wire rackthis can take several hours.
38. If using a tart ring with a removable bottom, separate the ring from the tart.
39. If you want, slide the tart from the round metal mold bottom onto a platteruse long metal spatulas to support the tart, if you have any.
40. Serve the tart at room temperature.
41. You can top with unsweetened whipped cream, or just sprinkle with powdered sugar.
42. It is such a deliciously rich tart that you dont want to give big portions (people can always have seconds).

batch, water, apricot, condensed milk, almond paste, sugar, whites, nuts, powdered sugar, cream, tart mold, baking stone, processor

Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/crostata-with-poached-apricots-and-pignolata-384551 (may not work)