James Tanner’s Plum and Almond Tart

Fancy a sweet treat? The delicate flavour of the almond, and the texture of the baked plums, makes this a delicious dessert that is sure to be popular with the whole family. Try James Tanner’s recipe, as featured on Lorraine. 

Disclosure: we ate a lot of this before recommending...

Ingredients:

·         250g sweet pastry (recipe below if you want to make from scratch)

·         125g unsalted butter

·         125g caster sugar

·         125g ground almonds

·         25g plain flour

·         3 eggs

·         20ml dark rum (optional but tastes a lot better with!)

·         40g flaked almonds (for garnish)

·         3/4 jar plum jam

·         8 firm plums

·         Icing sugar, to dust

·         Clotted cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method:

Roll out the pastry to 4mm thick and use it to line an 11” loose bottom fluted or plain tart tin.

Line the pastry with parchment paper and baking beans and blind bake at 180C/gas 4 for 25 minutes.

Next make the frangipane (almond) mix by creaming the butter and sugar with an electric hand whisk. Add the eggs one at a time then add the ground almonds, flour and rum.

Spread a thin layer of plum jam on the bottom of the pre-baked tart case, then spoon the frangipane mix into a piping bag and starting at the centre, pipe a line of the mix in circles to fill the tart (if you don’t have a piping bag you can use a strong standard sandwich bag or spoon the mixture on - but be careful as it will be slippery).

Cut the plums into halves and remove the stones, then gently press the plum halves into the tart, arranging neatly in the almond mixture. Sprinkle over the flaked almonds and bake at 180C for 30 minutes until golden.

Remove the tart from the oven and cool slightly. Dust with a little icing sugar, cut out s slice and serve with a dollop of clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.

To make your own pastry:

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter

250g plain flour

2 medium eggs

100g icing sugar

Pinch of salt

Method:

In a food processor mix the butter and flour together.

Add the icing sugar and salt and then the eggs.

Mix until a dough is formed.

Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 1 hour before rolling out.

 

Tweet us @office_fruit with a picture of your plum and almond tart!