Plum Tart

This was my offering at the in-laws last weekend for Easter dinner. The original recipe is from Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte (I have also posted her excellent Almond Cake) and uses peaches. I’m not sure I would have thought to try this recipe in the first place- my unfortunate attitude would have been: Fruit tart? Too easy. My friend Rachelle tried it and enthused so much about it that I hard to try it too.

It is very easy, and quick. I can pull it together after work, along with a real meal, in time to be eaten at a reasonable dinner hour. It’s flexible enough to substitute with seasonal fruit. I’ve used fresh peaches, and canned peaches (so good), and fresh mangoes. Hesser also recommends pears, apricots and apples. The crust is amazing, and probably the best part: the almond flavouring sets off most fruits, and it has the texture of lots of butter, but it uses olive oil instead. This is easy to eat without feeling too guilty.

Here’s what I did for the plum tart in the picture:

Plum Tart
Preheat oven to 425F.

Tart Casing
1 ½ C all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
½ C olive oil
2 Tbsp milk
½ tsp almond extract

1. Sift together the flour, salt and sugar.
2. Whisk together the oil, milk and extract.
3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry in a circular motion, and mix with fork or fingers until just moistened. (Hesser does all of this right in an 8 inch square pan she uses for the tart).
4. Move the dough to a 9 inch tart pan. Use your fingers to firmly pat out the dough to cover the bottom of the pan and the sides. Trim the edges.

Filling
5 plums: 2 black sweet plums with red flesh, and 3 sweet plums with a yellow flesh; washed and sliced, leaving the skins on.
1/3 C sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp butter

5. Arrange the plum slices in the tart, arranging them so that they overlap slightly and cover the whole tart.
6. Using your fingers, pinch together the sugar, flour and butter, until crumbly. Sprinkle over the plums.
7. Bake for 30min, until the crust is browned.
8. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature, with whipped cream or drizzled cream.