Recipe - Apricot Gratins With Almond And Kirsch

1 cup Sugar
One half cup Honey
1 Vanilla bean
2 One half cup Water
2 One half cup Fresh apricots

TOPPING
Three fourths cup Powdered sugar
1 One fourth cup Almond flour
10 tablespoon Butter; softened
2 Egg yolks
1 Whole egg
One fourth cup Slivered almonds
3 tablespoon Kirsch

GARNISH
Fresh mint
Powdered sugar in shaker

Prehaet the oven to 425 degrees. In a sauce pan, combine the sugar, honey,
vanilla bean and water. Bring the liquid to a boil. Add the apricots and
bring back to a boil. Remove from heat. Invert a saucer on top of the
fruit to keep it submerged.
Cover the saucepan and let stand for 24 hours. During the marinating, the
pits will impart an almond flavor to the apricots and their syrup. Drain
the fruit, reserving the syrup and being careful not to crsuh the apricots.
Halve the apricots. Remove and discard the pits. Place 45 apricot halves
in the bottom of each gratin dish , so they cover the bottom of the dish,
PLace the remaining apricots in a food processor with apricot syrup and
puree until smooth. For the topping: Combine One half cup of the powdered sugar,
the almond powder, butter, egg yolks, and the whole egg in a mixinf bowl
and beat with a whisk until smooth. Divide the batter among the 6 gratin
dishes and spread evenly over the apricots. Sprinkle the top with the
slivered almonds and remaining powdered sugar. Place the gratins in the
oven and bake for 1520 minutes. Bring the puree witht he Kirsch up to a
simmer. Remove gratins from the oven and place one on each plate. Garnish
with puree, powdered sugar and fresh mint.

Source: Essence of Emeril, #2327, TVFN formatted by Lisa Crawford, 4/28/96

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini