Plum tart

This is a crap picture of something really delicious. See I had bought 3 kgs of these purple plums at the market. Got them for a really good price… and of course they were really …. let’s say ripe.
So much so that when I left them on the counter I could bin one or two each day. Not good.  I needed to do something. Not jam. Pie. Or tart. Or as someone suggested a crumble. I did tart. And that my girls was a good thing. Two strokes of genius at work here. First; a class A recipe from David Lebovitz. Second: peeling or skinning the plums.
I’ve made plum jam before and I used to leave the skin on out of sheer laziness because I didn’t want to bother with a ton of slippery reluctant plums. I put them through a food mill but the result of course always was a pink/purplish jam.
This time I did it right and I loved the result. It’s so simple!
Just like you would do with tomatoes you score a cross in the skin of the base of the plum. Boil a kettle and pour the hot water over the plums. Leave for a few secs until the skin near the cross starts to curl. Place in cold water, then peel off the skin. Easy as that.
The best thing is that you are going to cook the plums anyway so if they get  a little mushy from the boiling water it doesn’t matter. Then they went into a large saucepan with a little sugar (not too much I wanted to keep a little tartness) and I added some pectin as well. Cook until they fall apart, give it a good stir and let cool.
Easy Jam Tart
Adapted from David Lebovitz*
(Adapted from the Crostata recipe at Wednesday Chef)
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
75 gr sugar
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
190g flour
70g fine ground cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
Approx. 375 gr cooked plum puree**

coarse raw sugar; known as cassonade, turbinado, or demerara sugar, for sprinkling
1. Mix butter and sugar until well-combined. Mix in the egg and almond extract.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients; flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder. Gradually add the wet ingredients, just until the mixture just comes together.
3. Measure about 2/3rd of the dough (about 330 grams), pat it into a disk, wrap it in plastic, and chill it. Take the remaining dough and roll it into a log about 2-inches (5cm) in diameter, wrap it and chill it, too
4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to room temperature slightly. With the heel of your hand, press the dough into the bottom and sides of an unbuttered removable bottom tart pan pat it out evenly. (I used one that’s 8″ but 9” or 10” will be fine as well, just make sure you save enough dough for the bottom).
5. Spread the jam evenly over the dough.
6. Remove the log of dough from the refrigerator and slice in cookie-sized disks, then lay them over the jam. Top with a scant 3 tbs of coarse sugar.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a preheated oven (fan assisted oven 180C) until the pastry is golden brown. Let cool and serve at room temperature.
This tart is great on the day it’s baked but equally nice a day or even two days after. Just make sure it’s well wrapped.
* I used less butter, less sugar because our flour is different
** David suggest approx. 450 gr of any kind of jam as long as it’s not too thin/runny
Verdict: I baked and served this one on our combined birthday together with a frangipane ripple chocolate cake and a raspberry buttercream cake. The next day there were only two pieces of plum cake left! Nuff said! We loved it!