(Plum jam) Tart

Summer is the season for stone fruit here in the Western Cape. I remember spending summers as a child on fruit farm in Franschoek where we used to eat beautiful Santa Rosa plums until our tummies hurt.

At the end of last year I bought myself the wonderful Bill’s Basics. Not only are the recipes simple and tasty but the photos are incredible. I have been drooling over the plum jam tart.

So when I recently, I managed to get my hands on some beautiful export quality plums straight from the farm I put on my apron and….

The results were a lovely soft base and a fruity but tart topping. I added lemon zest to the base and substituted lemon juice for the orange juice in the original recipe.

 I suggest you abandon any hope of removing the tart from the base and serve directly from the baking paper.

I would serve with ice-cream or slightly sweetened cream (if you can’t see any in the photos, it was because we didn’t have any L )

  

Ingredients

Pastry

100g unsalted butter

90g caster sugar

175g plain flour

25g ground almonds

Zest of ½ a lemon

Topping

800g plums

110g caster sugar

2 teaspoons cornflour

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Line the base of a springform pan with baking paper and grease the sides lightly with butter.

For the pastry, melt the butter in a heatproof bowl in the microwave until just melted. Set aside to cool.

Place flour and sugar in the bowl and add the melted butter and lemon zest. Mix until you form a soft dough.

 Turn out into the lined pan and press evenly across the base with your fingers. 

Prick several times with a fork. 

Bake in the oven for 15-20 min until the pastry starts to become slightly golden. 

Remove from oven and sprinkle the ground almonds over the base.

While the base is baking, pit and quarter the plums.

Mix the cornflour and lemon juice and pour over the plums with the sugar. 

Toss until the plums are coated. Arrange evenly over the pastry base.

Place in the oven for 35-40 min until cooked through and bubbly.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5-10min before serving.

Serve with cream or ice-cream.