This little number came to be because I had a total of five apricots at home which were going sort of soft... Meh. (Major apricot binge these last two weeks or so.)
In the grocery store I walked past the dough section and picked up on of those pre-rolled puff pastry pie shells, thinking I could turn it into something... And it did turn out very nicely indeed.
Many people like to sprinkle the bottom of the pastry with ground almonds or hazelnuts. Not only does this add taste but it also helps to soak up the fruit juices and keep the pastry from going soggy. Since I try to avoid nuts, I have substituted this with either Kellogg's Special K (bashed to powder with my pestle and mortar) and as I didn't have any of it on hand today, with a rye crisp bread.
I used blueberries here because the five apricots didn't quite fill out the pie and I had the berries on hand. So I just used enough to fill the gaps. They look stunning in combination with the apricots and their flavor doesn't really detract from them either.
For the sirup on top I wanted to go with lemon juice and sugar at first. But apricots are always associated with honey (don't know why) and I remembered the big bottle of sweet vermouth in the cupboard (I had bought it thinking it was the dry variety...). I was surprised how well the herb-y, woody notes of the wine complimented the apricots. I will be using this combination again for sure.
1 puff pastry pie shell
1 slice rye crisp bread, use pestle&mortar or a plastic bag and a rolling pin to crush it into powder
a little sugar, if the fruit needs it
5 apricots, de-stoned and quartered
a handful of blueberries
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
1 teaspoon honey
Preheat your oven to 200°C.
Sprinkle the rye powder over your pie shell evenly. Add a little sugar if you want to.
Distribute your apricots evenly and then the berries into the crevices. Combine the vermouth and the honey. Heat and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Then pour the sirup over the whole pie.
Bake for ca. 25 minutes or until the bottom has crisped.
