1. Place the flour, ground almonds, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and blitz until it has completely broken down and the mixture has a mealy texture. Add the egg, egg yolk and almond extract. Blitz again until a soft dough forms.
2. Take around 1/3 of the dough and flatten into a disk. Chill this portion of dough for making the decorations later.
3. Take the remaining dough and crumble it into a 23-cm, springform cake tin. Press the dough into an even layer on the base of the tin and halfway up the sides of the tin. Use the bottom of a glass to help to smooth the base and sides. Place in the fridge to chill as you prep the apricots.
1. Halve the apricots and remove the pits. Place the halved apricots into a medium bowl and toss with the sugar. Let them sit for a few minutes so the sugar draws out some moisture. Sprinkle over the cornstarch and toss to combine again.
2, Arrange the apricot halves in the lined, chilled pastry case. Return to the fridge as you make the decorations.
1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan.
2, Take that 1/3 of dough you chilled earlier and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it’s about 5mm thick. Use shaped cutters to punch out small shapes from the pastry. Re-roll the scraps of dough and cut more shapes until you’ve used it all up.
3. Decorate the rim of the lined pastry case with the shapes you’ve just cut out. Sprinkle the edges with some caster sugar.
4. Bake the tart for 30-40 minutes until the fruit is soft and the pastry decorations are turning golden.
1. Once the tart is baked, make the caramel by combining the Lyle's Golden Syrup, butter, cream and salt in a medium pot. Set over a medium heat on the stove and stir often until the butter has melted and the mixture starts to bubble. At this point, turn the heat down to medium-low and let bubble away, stirring occasionally to prevent it catching and burning in places. Cook for 5-6 minutes until the mixture is slightly thickened. The colour should have also changed from an opaque yellow tone to more of a beige toffee colour.
2. Drizzle 2/3 of the hot caramel over the apricots in the warm tart. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving warm with the remaining warm caramel for drizzling*.
*If the caramel is too cool/thick for drizzling, warm it back up with a splash of water over a low heat, stirring often, until warm and pourable.
