Tarte aux Mirabelles

Small plums laid cut side up on a layer of ground almonds, which is there to drink the juice before the pastry can.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

For the case

• 1 batch pâte brisée, as on its own page, made sweet and blind-baked

For the filling

• 900 g mirabelle plums, halved and stoned
• 60 g ground almonds
• 2 tablespoons fine semolina
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons apricot jam, to glaze

Method

1. THE PLUMS GO IN CUT SIDE UP ON A LAYER OF GROUND ALMONDS, and the almonds are not for flavour -- they are there to drink the juice before the pastry can. Mirabelles are small and very wet, and a kilo of them releases a surprising amount in a hot oven. Almonds and a little semolina scattered over the base soak it up and turn into something close to a soft frangipane underneath.
2. CUT SIDE UP, NOT DOWN, and packed tightly. Face down, each plum empties straight into the base and the whole tart floods. Face up, the hollows hold their own juice and it reduces in the oven to something syrupy.
3. THE CASE IS BLIND-BAKED AND SEALED, as the pâte brisée page sets out. With this much fruit it is the difference between a crisp base and a raw one.
4. THEY ARE NOT SUGARED UNTIL THEY ARE IN THE TIN. Sugar drawn across cut plums in a bowl pulls the juice out before it ever reaches the oven, and you tip the best of the tart down the sink.
5. AND THE TART IS NOT MOVED UNTIL IT IS COOL. Hot, the base is still soft and lifting it cracks the pastry under the weight of the fruit.
6. Pâte brisée made as on its own page with the sugar, lined into a 24 cm tin, blind-baked and sealed with egg white.
7. Plums washed, halved and stoned. Not sugared yet.
8. The ground almonds and semolina mixed and scattered evenly over the base of the cooled case.
9. The plum halves packed in CUT SIDE UP, close together in concentric rings, slightly overlapping.
10. NOW the sugar scattered over and the vanilla sprinkled across.
11. Baked at 190C for 35 to 45 minutes, until the plums are collapsing at the edges, singed at the tips, and the juice is bubbling and thick rather than watery.
12. The jam warmed with a splash of water and brushed over the fruit while hot.
13. COOLED IN THE TIN completely before moving it.
14. Eaten the day it is made, warm or cold, with crème fraîche. The base softens overnight however well sealed.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes