Rustic Plum Tart

I had always wanted to try out all the berry varieties & stone fruits. So one day I bought plums even before deciding what to make of it. I had thought of eating them raw,  but then the idea of making a tart crossed my mind. I decided to use the store bought pastry as I was baking tart for the first time. I got the list of further ingredients required for tart preparation and got them lined up. A scrumptious fruit tart is a gorgeous pastry crust, browned to perfection and filled with a rich creamy filling. It's hard to resist the beauty of this dessert too! So tag along and lets make this fruitilicious tart.

Rustic Plum Tart
Adapted from the book ' Tarts & Pies' by Philippa Vanstone

Ingredients:
350 g Sweet short pastry (I used store bought)
125 g Unsalted Butter
125 g Light Muscovado Sugar
2 Eggs
125 g Ground Almonds
5 Ripe dark Plums (halved & stoned)
1 Tbsp Plain Flour
2 Tbsp Apricot Jam
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Icing Sugar, to dust

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190 C/fan 170 C/gas 5.
• Use the pastry to line a tart tin. Lightly prick the base and rest it for 20 mins in fridge or 10 mins in freezer.
• Cream butter and sugar together, beat in the eggs and then stir in the ground almonds.
• Spread the almond mixture over the pastry base.
• Make 3 cuts in each halved plum (1/2 way through). Place these plums, cut side up, evenly positioned over the surface of tart.
• Dust the plums with flour (helps absorb excess moisture of plums as they cook)
• Bake the tart for 40 - 45 mins until the almond sponge is firm enough to touch.
• If the tart starts to color too much, reduce temperature to 180 C/fan 160 C/gas 4 and cover tart with a foil.
• When the tart is baked, remove it from oven.
• Heat apricot jam with lemon juice and 3/4 Tbsp of water. Let it boil for a min.
• Brush the surface of tart with this apricot glaze and dust the pastry crust with icing sugar

Notes: Serve with vanilla ice cream!

                                     ♥ Thank You ♥