After major neglect of this blog I’m pushing through all the half-started drafts that were formulating in my head. I cook every day. I eat every day and I’d wager George and I have a good dinner party about once a week, but not enough of it is making it HERE. So you can recreate our experimental madness in your own kitchen. I’m obviously better at eating than about writing about it.

So last weekend I was treated to a weekend street fair and barbeque in the North Bay. Afterwards I spent the evening at my friends’ house and had to help manage a HUGE parasite that had overtaken their entire yard. Their lawn had been completely overrun and we had to dig it from under about THREE GARBAGE BAGS full of plums. I’ve never seen so many plums. They asked if I would help dispose of some and I was only too happy to carry my own haul home.

I thought the perfect use for a multitude of stone fruit was a tart so I sliced them up that bowlful and pitted them before throwing them in a bowl with a squeeze of meyer lemon, half a cup of sugar and a tablespoon and a half of cornstarch.

For the dough I used a cup and a half of flour, half a cup of sugar, some lemon zest, and a pinch of salt. By hand I mixed this with small cubes of cold unsalted butter (a half a cup + 1 tablespoon). Some people are lucky enough to have one of those fancy countertop dough mixers. I am not one of those people so BARE HANDS it is.

I used my 9″ tart pan instead of the mini tart pans.

Chill the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge, then fill with the filling arranging the plums in a fancy pattern if you want (or if you’re messy like me, just toss them in there)

Bake the tart uncovered for 15 minutes at 425degrees, then lower the oven temp to 375 and cover the tart with foil. Bake for an additional 30-40 minutes until the filling is thick and gooey and reduced and the edges of the crust are brown.

Let cool completely and then remove from the tart pan and slice up. This particular recipe is EXTRA TART so feel free to serve with a scoop of whipped cream. This a a tart that fans of strawberry rhubarb pie would love.

Filed under: Recipes

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