Plum Tart
As I walked into food lovers market this week I saw the most gorgeous purple skinned and yellow fleshed plums. So I just had to take a few home. Lying in the fridge for a couple of days I wasn't sure if I wanted to make a chutney or a dessert...... wait what am I saying. LIE!! Dessert is of course the only thing on my mind. LOL
I made the pastry with salted butter as it was the only thing in the house and it truly came out delicious.
For the Pastry:
180g Flour - All purpose
120g Salted Butter - chilled & cubed
50g Icing Sugar
2 x Large Egg Yolks
1Tsp of Iced Water
Sift the flour & icing sugar together twice, and place in a food processor. Add the butter and blitz till the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the 2 yolks and blitz till the crumbs come away from the sides. If the pastry looks a tad dry add the water and blitz again. if not, turn the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Cut about a third off of the pastry and return the rest to the fridge. on a lightly floured surface gently roll out the pastry to about 4mm thickness, gently let it fall into your loose bottomed pie shell and return to the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
For the Tart:
7 - 8 Fresh Firm Plums
1 x Vanilla Bean - Seeds only
200g Golden Brown Sugar
3Tbsp of Icing Sugar
3Tbsp of Plain Flour
While the pastry is resting and the oven heating up, start with the fruits. First halve them, stone them and then quarter them. Place all the quarters, vanilla seeds, sugar, icing sugar and flour in a bowl, mix well and set aside to macerate slightly.
Blind bake the pastry, till slightly golden. Take out the wax paper and baking beans/rice, and brush the inside of the pastry with a slightly whisked egg white all over. Return the base back to the oven for another 3 - 5 minutes. This will seal the pastry so it doesn't turn into a soggy mess once you've added the fruits. Add the fruit, arrange them in a nice shape or just chuck them in it really doesn't matter. Remove the remaining pastry from the fridge and grate it over the top of the tart.
Bake the tart for anything from 30 - 45 minutes till golden on top. And the juices has started to bubble out the sides of the pastry. Remove and leave to cool slightly.
Dust liberally with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream.
