Parisian Plum Tart with Almond Cream

If you follow us, you know that in our magical Parisian apartment there’s a very clear division of labor. Mamush loves the fruit department. She’ll happily eat cakes with fruit of every kind, a juicy raspberry tart, lemon cake, orange cake, all sorts of apple cakes, and even, heaven help us, an assortment of tart fruit sorbets.

I, on the other hand, love the brown department: chocolate, praliné, coffee, and anything that brings them together. Chocolate mousse, ice cream with chocolate crunch, chocolate fondant, tiramisu and every variation of it I’ve dreamed up. Try my Chocolate Mousse Tiramisu, it’s a wow.

But ever since Mamush came into my life (we’ll celebrate ten years of marriage in September), I’ve switched sides when it comes to cakes too, ha! I’ll happily eat fruit cakes now, carrot cake has become one of my favorites, and of course cakes with apricots, my favorite fruit of all.

By the way, to me the combination of apricot and chocolate is one of the most wonderful pairings ever created in pastry. I grew up on it as a child, when Grandma Erzsi made us her perfect Gâteau Zserbó (Gerbeaud cake), and I developed it as an adult with the Apricot Breton Brownies cake I dreamed up about a year ago.

When the summer fruit arrives at the markets in Paris, Mamush brings me brown paper bags full of apricots with a red blush, firm and tart, and I’m instantly back at my grandparents’ apricot tree on Yotam Street in Haifa. But I also love the juicy red purple plums, and there are plenty of those in the city’s markets right now.

So to celebrate the hot summer that’s settled over Paris, I made Mamush a plum tart with almond cream, one I’ve made before and even shared the recipe for. This time I put my heart into it and also strengthened it with a bit more rum in the almond cream, since Mamush loves rum, and I baked it in a low tin instead of a tart ring.

You can eat the tart just as it is, or serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a two ingredient ice cream you can make at home.

Parisian Plum Tart with Almond Cream
Tin size: 22 cm, 3 to 4 cm high

Ingredients

Shortcrust Pastry:
170g all-purpose flour
20g ground almonds
60g confectioners’ sugar
2g salt (pinch)
100g cold butter, cubed
30g eggs (about half a medium egg)

Almond Cream:
90g very soft butter (not melted)
90g fine sugar
90g ground almonds
55g egg (one medium egg)
10g rum
Optional: 30g toasted pecans, chopped

About 10 to 12 round plums (I prefer the firm purple ones), pitted and halved

Preparation
1. Shortcrust Pastry: In a food processor, pulse together all the pastry ingredients except the egg, in short bursts, until the mixture looks sandy.
2. Add the egg and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Work the dough as little as possible.
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, knead briefly into a smooth ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for two hours.
4. Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out into a sheet about 4 to 5 mm thick.
5. Butter the tart tin with soft butter, lay the dough in the tin, press it gently into the base and sides, and trim off the excess. Prick the base with a fork to keep it from puffing up in the oven, then chill for another hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 170°C. (340°F).
7. Bake the tart shell for about 10 to 12 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Leave the oven on.
8. Almond Cream: Using a hand whisk or a mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and ground almonds. Add the egg and rum and fold in with a spatula (no need to whip). Fold in the chopped pecans.
9. Once the tart shell has cooled, spread the almond cream over it in a thick, even layer.
10. Arrange the plum halves over the almond cream, overlapping slightly in a circular pattern. There’s no need to press them in too firmly, they’ll settle gently into the cream as it bakes.
11. Bake the tart in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, depending on your oven, until the top is golden and set. Let it cool at room temperature.
*Store the tart in the refrigerator.

Bon-Appétit
Sharon