On Sunday, I made a trip to the grocery store and stumbled across an amazing sale on apricots. AH-MAY-ZING sale! Apricots were on sale for 48 cents a pound. So naturally, I bought two pounds of apricots, which ended up being about 20 apricots.

I proudly walked out of the grocery store spending less than a dollar on a huge bag of fresh fruit, feeling like a boss…without ever figuring out what I would do with 20 apricots.

So, the next step in consuming all these fresh fruits was figuring out what to make, and that’s where these puff pastry mini apricot fruit tarts came in.

I love puff pastry and I love fruit tarts, so naturally I was drawn towards making mini fruit tarts. Instead of dumping loads and loads of sugar all over these tarts, the only part where sugar was added was at the end. The lessened amount of sugar make these mini fruit tarts a little healthier, letting you feel guilt-free when you reach for the another (and you will reach for another).

Mini Apricot Fruit Tarts

Makes 9 Mini Fruit Tarts. Adapted from Martha Stewart. 

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet of Puff Pastry
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups fresh apricots, diced
• 1 tsp honey
• Optional: powdered sugar to sprinkle

Directions: 

First, thaw one sheet of puff pastry. Then, on a large baking sheet line with parchment paper, roll out the thawed puff pastry. Cut into 9 squares using a sharp knife.

Score a 1/2″ crust from the edge of each puff pastry square. Don’t cut all the way through, but make sure the top of the sheet is cleanly cut.

Lightly beat an egg and brush the pastry crust of each pastry square with the egg. Then, set the pastry in the freezer for 10 minutes to set again. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Now it’s time to make the whipped cream! Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, pour in the heavy whipping cream into a mixing bowl with the vanilla and whip until you see peaks in the cream. This takes about 5 minutes. Once made, set aside.

Put the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. In my experience, it took exactly 15 minutes to achieve the perfect look. Each of the squares will puff up into little pillows of flaky crust.

While the tart crusts are baking, dice the apricots (I used about 4-5) and mix with the honey and set aside. To keep the fruit extra fresh, you can keep it in the fridge.

When you take the pastry squares out of the oven, gently press down the centers of each of the squares to make room for the toppings.

Gently dollop a generous amount of whipped cream onto each of the squares. Then top with fruit. Sprinkle powdered sugar if you please! Serve immediately for the freshest results.

Yum