lita's rustic plum (or whatever takes your fancy) tart

yum yum yum ... thank you for this recipe, lita! no prizes for guessing what we'll be munching on this long weekend. (yes, we know the picture is not of plums. but we were hard-pressed to find one prettier than this, and we did so want to share it with you. isn't it lovely?)

xx

for the crust

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

120g chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 tablespoons (approx.) ice-cold water



for the topping


700g (approx.) plums, halved, pitted and each half cut into 6 slices
6 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

30g unsalted butter, melted

1 egg, beaten (for glaze)


1/4 cup preserved apricots (or chunky apricot jam)

to make the crust

blend the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. add the butter and cut it into the flour mixture by pulsing the food processor. do this until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. add 2 tablespoons of the ice-cold water. blend until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if the mixture is dry. gather the dough into a ball the flatten it into a circle. wrap the dough in gladwrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

to make the topping

preheat the oven to 200°c. toss the plums with 4 tablespoons of the sugar, the ginger and the cinnamon in bowl.
on a floured surface, roll out the dough into a 32cm round. transfer the rolled-out dough to a rimmed circular baking tray.
mix 1 tablespoon of the sugar with 1 tablespoon of the flour in a small bowl and sprinkle over the dough, leaving a 5cm border.
arrange the plums in concentric circles on the dough, again leaving a 5cm plain border. drizzle the plums with the melted butter.
fold the dough border in toward the centre. brush the border with the beaten egg to glaze and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
bake the tart until the plums are tender and the crust is golden - usually about 45 minutes.

stir the preserved apricots in a saucepan over low heat until gently heated, then brush over the plums. allow the tart to cool for 1 hour on the baking tray. run a long thin knife under the tart to loosen it before transferring it to a plate. serve at room temperature.


what to do with plums

we've got a plum tree over our fence that has been producing plums like they're going out of fashion for the past few weeks. and because i couldn't bear to watch them all falling to waste on the ground, i dedicated around an hour this morning to pitting them (they're very small. it was a labour of love. or madness.) and then another couple of hours to slowly stewing them with a small amount of honey. and it was worth the effort, even if they did reduce to a quarter of the volume i began with! we're serving them with a banana and poppyseed cake and indulging in throwbacks to our childhoods every time we get a whiff of them. there's just something about them that takes us right back to bare feet on the grass, eating fruit straight off the tree and feeling the glimmer of sunlight on our backs.

bliss.

xxx