I had no idea how many apricots would translate into 3/4 cups of nectar. I also had no idea how many apricots were in a pound and the store didn't have a scale. After sizing them up, I concluded I should buy eight and hope for the best. Five dollars later, I was on my way back home.
Uncertain how best to proceed, I consulted Google. There were many recipes available for apricot nectar, but they all involved added sugar. Considering how much sugar is in a pâtes de fruits recipe, I thought that might lead to a cloyingly sweet confection. Instead, I decided to go off book and simply juice the apricots. People seem to juice everything these days, so I had no reason to think juicing apricots would be problematic. Indeed, armed with a high end juicer, I assumed this would be a breeze.
It was not.
I cut my apricots in half, removed the stones, dropped the fruit down the chute, and switched on the motor. And then watched in confusion as the juicer quickly chewed through the apricots providing me with a bowl of pulp and only about a tablespoon of juice. Was the juicer assembled correctly? Or can you really not juice an apricot? Undeterred, I put the pulp back through the juicer for round two. The auger struggled, but eventually did fill a Mason jar with a thick apricot puree. I was in business (and made a mental note that next time, I'll just use my food processor).
And so into the pot I measured the apricot puree, lemon juice, and sugar. Following the recipe I used during my chocolatier program, I cooked the mixture on medium heat until it hit 113 degrees, then added the remaining sugar. Now, my recipe stated to cook the "juice" mixture to 238, but Notter's table indicated that apricot pâtes de fruits should cook to 225, so that's what I did. Once I hit temperature, I added the pectin and cooked it for 2 more minutes. I poured some of the mixture into a measuring cup so that I could fill the cavities of a silicone jewel mold, and poured what remained into a parchment lined loaf pan. I sprinkled the tops with sugar and let the pâtes de fruits sit for two hours to cool and set.
I made some notes regarding the changes I made to the recipe and read a few more pages of Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier. When two hours had passed (incredibly quickly, I might add), I unmolded the jewels and cut the slab into 1" pieces. I then mixed a touch of citric acid into a bowl of sugar, and dusted all of the pieces. When I tried one of the end pieces, I was thrilled with the results. The apricot flavour was bright and the citric acid brought some complexity to the flavour. Definitely an improvement over my earlier attempts.
Based on the reactions I received from those who had a chance to taste these, the apricot flavour was very present and the little bit of sour pucker from the citric acid definitely made a difference in the experience of the confection.
And me? I give it an A -- for apricot!
