It is my personal opinion that summer desserts (at least in the South) should be light and fruity. Why, you ask? Because when it’s hot outside, I don’t want to walk around with a lot of dense cake and creamy frosting in my belly, and, most importantly, summer fruits are delicious. Since fruit tastes best when it’s actually in season, I like to eat as much of it as I can during the long, hot summer months. Right now, my neighborhood Kroger is full of Texas strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. Soon, East Texas peaches will be in season. All of this sweet produce is just begging to be baked into some light and luscious summer confection.

That leads me to the main subject of this post: the apricot-nectarine galette that we made last night. It was everything a summer dessert should be, and it’s only 123 calories a slice. Better yet, the recipe is quick, simple and flexible. Just switch out the fruit. For example, tomorrow night, we’re making one with cherries instead of apricots. You could even make this tart in the winter, too, if you used apples instead of apricots and mixed in a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg.

We did make a couple of modifications to the original recipe, which I’ll share here. First, instead of mixing up the 1 cup of almond meal, 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1 egg, we just bought almond paste at the grocery store. (It’s in the baking aisle.) Second, I suggest that you vary the amount of sugar that you mix in with the fruit according to the type of fruit you’re using. Since we used apricots and nectarines, which are naturally sweeter, I only mixed in 1/4 cup of sugar. Tomorrow night, I’ll use the original 1/3 cup of sugar, since cherries aren’t as naturally sweet as nectarines.