I invented this recipe long ago on the pretense of it being a Gondorian dessert, and I just made it again this weekend for a friend’s b-day. It was just as amazingly delicious as I remembered and I haven’t seen anything quite like it anywhere else, so I’m gonna share it here. Sadly I didn’t manage to take any fancy foodie pics of this most recent batch; it just disappeared that fast.
It is a creamy custard tart, with the piquancy of goat cheese and the sweetness of apricots, on a chewy shortbread crust.
Shortbread pastry crust:
1 ¼ cups flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbsp butter, softened
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp cream cheese
A couple tablespoons of milk or water (as needed)
Mix flour, sugar, and salt thoroughly. Add softened butter, mix until it has the consistency of crumbs. Add honey, lemon juice, cream cheese, egg yolk. Mix together, and then add just enough water or milk to form a firm dough ball. Roll out to a circle of about ¼ inch thickness, transfer into a pie tin, crimp the edges, liberally poke holes in the sides and bottom with a fork. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Cheese mixture:
2 eggs plus one egg yolk
¼ cup sugar
4 oz. goat cheese (if you don’t like goat cheese, you could probably substitute cream cheese, but I haven’t tried it that way.)
2 Tbsp cream cheese
1 Tbsp cream
¾ cup apricot preserves
Mix sugar with egg until light and fluffy. Add goat cheese, cream cheese, and cream. Mix thoroughly (there may still be some small clumps of cheese—this is fine). Stir in ½ cup of apricot preserves (set the rest aside).
When your crust is cooled, pour cheese mixture in, return to oven and bake at 200F for 60–90 minutes or until it sets (it will still be somewhat gooey). Remove from oven and let cool. When cooled, spoon the remaining ¼ cup of preserves over the top. Get artistic with it. Make little swirls if you want.
Serve with whipped cream (homemade whipped cream with no added sugar tastes great with this!)
