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d'ARTOIS of Apricot

A puff pastry tart filled with apricot jam, brushed with egg and sprinkled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,630 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

d'ARTOIS of Apricot

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pastry

  1. Prepare 1 pound of puff pastry, folding it seven times.

  2. Take one-third of the pastry, roll it out to fit a baking sheet (14x12 inches).

Assemble

  1. Spread a thick layer of apricot jam over the pastry, leaving an inch from the edges.

  2. Roll out the remaining pastry to the size of the baking sheet and place it over the jam.

  3. Press the edges with your thumb to seal and trim any excess pastry.

  4. Score the top with a knife to create small oblong shapes and brush with beaten egg.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  2. Sprinkle with fine sugar and return to the oven for 1-2 minutes to melt the sugar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apricot + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,712 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Its many buttery layers puff up when baked, giving a flaky, airy texture.
Apricot jam
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture that softens slightly under the pastry as it bakes.
Egg
Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.
Fine sugar
Melts on top in the final minutes, adding sweetness and a crisp, glazed surface.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges before baking. Pressing the edges firmly seals the jam inside and lets the layers rise evenly. A loose seal can let jam leak out and leave the pastry soggy or uneven.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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