Today I wanted to share a great apricot crostata dessert you can serve for company or you can eat this apricot crostata for breakfast or an afternoon snack with a cup of coffee.

Growing up with an Italian grandmother who loved to bake was always fun.  I can assure you that every time we went to my “nonnas” (grandma in Italian) house we would eat some pretty amazing cookies, breads and crostata of some sort.  When I was in culinary school, making the crust of a crostata came very natural to me, remember I might have had an amazing grandmother who baked but my mom did not bake so I never knew that baking would be something that would intrigue me.

I’ve been making this apricot crostata for years and I usually make it with jam inside, apricot usually.  It’s a no fail recipe, super impressive and it is pretty tasty if I might say so myself.

You basically put all your flour and lemon zest in a food processor, if you are unsure of how to zest a lemon, click  “How to – Zest a Lemon”

you add your butter that is cut in cubes

you pulse a few times to break up the butter into small pea sized pieces (this helps you achieve a flaky crust)

I add the water in tablespoons until it comes together in a ball and then I remove it from the food processor and place it directly onto saran wrap.  See all the butter pieces?

Once it’s wrapped I shape it into a disk.  This is placed in fridge for 1 hour or until tomorrow.  You can also label it, place it in a freezer bag and freeze it for 3 months for use for another time.

When it’s time for use, you roll it out in a “circle”, it does not have to be perfect.  Then you put your jam of flavor on the rolled dough, but not to the edges

you fold over the ends

sprinkle with almond slices, do an egg wash and sprinkle some sugar.  If you are having company, you can do it to this point and put it back in the refrigerator until it’s time to bake.  While I used parchment paper, it’s also very convenient to use silicone mats…click here for my favorite silicone mat

Or you can bake it off and serve it room temperature.

and here is another one I did with a sprinkle of fresh blueberries and apricot jam.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!!!!

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