The classic French summer dessert
La tarte aux prunes — one of the only times something doesn’t sound as good in French as it does in English. At a good bakery, fresh fruit tarts go for between $20 and $30 each. But now that it’s plum season, you can easily make your own (far better) for a tenth of the cost. Your reward will be a rich but light dessert that is the very essence of summer.
Any kind or color of plum will work beautifully (I used two different kinds in the photo above). You can also use apriums, pluots, and/or nectarines. Make sure they’re ripe; they should give a bit when pressed slightly.
My mother-in-law introduced me to homemade plum tarts, but I got this dough recipe from David Lebovitz, who got it from Paule Caillat. It’s made with an unusual (but crazy simple) method that yields scrumptious results.
Tart Dough
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 ounces (about 1–1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 410 degrees F. Once it’s at temperature, put the butter, water, sugar, and salt in a heat-proof bowl (I use a big Pyrex measuring cup) and put it in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes. The mixture should be bubbling, with the butter starting to brown.
Carefully take the bowl out of the oven. Pour in the flour gradually (if you let it clump all at once, it might splash and burn you) and mix well with a wooden spoon. Once the dough is uniform, put it in a 9-inch cake pan, pie plate, tart pan, or springform pan. (I’ve used all of these; the springform works slightly better than the others, but don’t go buy one if you don’t have one.)
The dough will still be hot! Use the wooden spoon to spread and pat it evenly all over the bottom and about an inch up the sides of your pan. Use your fingers for the final patting once it’s cool enough. Bake for 15 minutes.
Fruit Filling
9–10 ripe plums (about 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter), about 2–1/4 pounds
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
While the tart shell is baking, quarter the plums and remove the pits. Do this over a bowl to catch any juices. Sometimes you have to cut the pits out. If your fruit is especially large, you might want to divide the quarters in half.
Once the shell is out of the oven, place the quarters sitting up about halfway in concentric circles, starting from the outer edge. You want as little of the shell bottom to show as possible, so move the fruit around accordingly.
Stir the sugar and cornstarch together, then sift the mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the fruit feels cooked through when you stick a toothpick or small, sharp knife into one of the quarters.
Once the tart is out of the oven, there still might be white sugar or cornstarch showing on some of the peaks. You have two options. You can dip a pastry brush in some of the lower-lying juices and brush it over the peaks until the sugar dissolves. Or, if you want to be extra fancy, heat a tablespoon of stone fruit jam (peach, apricot, plum, or even cherry) in a small saucepan with a tablespoon of water until bubbly, then brush that mixture over the entire surface of the tart, paying special attention to the white bits.
Let cool completely before serving. Serves 8.