How To Make Apricot Crostatas

These are my Mom’s hands.  They’re two parts lady lumber jack, one part awesome raiser of children, and three parts amazing gardener.  That’s six parts total.  Arbitrary… I know.

I love Mom hands… they tend to have super knowledge.

I taught my mamabear how to make Apricot Crostatas.  Pie dough.  Egg wash.  Wait.  Not so much egg wash.  Fruit.  Fold.  That’s basically how to lesson went.

What.  Back up.  What the heck is a Crostata?  I’m glad you asked.  Crostatas are like free form fruit pies… pies without the limitations of a pie tin.  I like to make a mini version of a crostata because… I’m greedy and I don’t like to share.  Also… eating six mini crostatas is easier on the guilt brain that eating and entire  regular sized crostata.  Been there.  Done it.  Whateves.

Come on… let’s bake fruit things.

Let’s start with pie dough.  Please don’t freak out.  It’s just butter and flour and water… you can totally do this.

With your fingers break up the cold (frozen, even) fat chunks into the flour and sugar mixture.  Don’t be shy… really get in there.  You’ll get to about this point in the dough making process…

That wasn’t so bad, now was it?  Now we need to add the cold cold cold water.

Theme?  Everything has to be cold here.  Ok.. not the flour, salt and sugar… but everything else.  The cold will keep the fat from completely incorporating into the dough.  You want little buttery fat pockets.  That’s what makes pie crust so freakin’ flaky.

Add cold water to the butter and flour mixture.  Work it together with a fork until all of the ingredients have been moistened.

Moistened is a weird word.

Dump the dough, in a shaggy mess, onto the counter.  Work it together with your hands.  Once it forms a rough ball, smash it slightly with the heal of your hand… just cause it feels good… and because you’re the boss of the dough.  So there.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest for at least an hour.

This is important… it allows the gluten to relax, the fat to re-chill and the moisture to mellow into the dough.

These are pretty.  These apricots are sexy.  Slice them up and they’re ready for crostatas.  Feel free to use fresh raspberries or blueberries.  Blackberries are rad.  Avoid strawberries and bananas…  no good.. moisture issues.

Pits.  It’s only natural.

Once the dough is properly chilled, divide it into eight or sixteen pieces.  Depending on whether or not you doubled the recipe.

Roll the dough pieces out into circles.  Not perfect circles.  Kinda-sorta circles is good enough.

We’re going to use egg wash two times in this whole situation.  Before we add the fruit, and just before the crostatas go in the oven.  Egg wash is a beaten egg with a splash of milk.  Sweet.

Brush the dough circle lightly with egg wash.

Ok… that’s a little heavy handed with the wash… but it’s ok.

Pile on the sliced apricots.  I think we used about 4 to 6 apricot wedges per crostata.

Carefully fold the dough up and around the fruit.  The egg wash will help the dough stick to itself.

Pile the crostatas onto a baking sheet and chill for an hour before baking.  Do note… this isn’t how we bake the crostatas.  We’ll put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper  and spread them out more.  It’ll work out better that way.