PLUMS and Plum Blossom Tattoos
A few years ago, my friend, Betty, invited Roz and me over for dinner and made a Plum Galette for dessert. After dinner, Roz and I politely ate a slice of the galette, and then another, and then abandoned our forks and finished off the galette so that only crumbs were left.
I bought some lovely purple plums in Whole Foods the other day and made this tart. While it was not devoured all in one sitting, it was pretty good.
The recipe is an adaptation of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Plum Flame Tart in The Pie and Pastry Bible
1 recipe sweet cookie tart crust
3-4 large purple plums sliced into 1/8 sections
1/3 – ½ cup sugar – depending on the tartness of the plums
½ t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
1/3 cup Apricot or other preserves for glazing
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Place a cookie sheet on a rack in the lowest position in the oven
Crust
One stick of cold, unsalted butter cut into pieces
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ scant cups of all-purpose flour
1/8 t salt
1 large egg yolk
2 T cream
Combine the egg yolk and cream and set aside
Using a pastry blender combine the sugar, flour, butter and salt until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. You can also use a food processor for this part. Add the egg and cream mixture and blend with a fork. I needed a little more cream to make it come together. If the dough is too soft, refrigerate it for a few hours or freeze for about 10 minutes. Mine was perfect as is to press into the pan. Press the mixture evenly over the pan bottom and about ½ inch up the sides. Use a tart pan with a removable bottom or a similar spring form pan. No need to treat the pan because there is plenty of butter in the dough and it will release easily. I used a 10” spring-form pan because that is what I have.
Bake the tart shell for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.
Place the plum slices on the tart shell in concentric rows beginning with the outer edge of the crust, working toward the center. Mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together and sprinkle over the tart.
Bake the tart for about 45 minutes, or until the plum slices are soft. Remove from the oven and cool.
Glaze the tart by warming and straining apricot preserves and brushing over the tart. I had an extra plum or two, so I just made some plum preserves, strained them and used that as the glaze.
Why did I photograph the plate upside down?
And the tattoos?
Gunsmoke and Knitting 