Add the crème fraîche to a medium mixing bowl.Add the plums, cornstarch, ginger, orange zest, and cinnamon to a large mixing bowl and stir until the plums are coated with sugar and cornstarch and the spices and zest are well distributed.Place the tart pan on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 20 minutes.Press the dough evenly along the bottom and sides into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.Melt the butter in a small saucepan (or in the microwave), add the vanilla extract to the butter and stir, then pour into the dry ingredients and stir together until thoroughly moistened.Add the flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt to a small bowl and whisk together. The crust will soften a bit under the custard, but it will still be delicious. It’s best on the day that it’s made, but it keeps well, in the refrigerator, for a couple of days. I do suggest removing the tart from the pan while it’s still warm (about 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven), just in case any of that overflow causes any sugary stickage as it cools.Īnd I recommend slicing this tart with a sharp chef’s knife rather than a pie server, just so that you can go cleanly through the plum skins, which are tender to eat but sometimes snag on dull implements.īut really, this plum custard tart is tough to mess up. It’s filled to the brim when it goes into the oven, and there’s a good chance there will be a little bit of overflow in the course of baking. You arrange the plums in the tart crust and pour the custard over them and (carefully-the tart crust gets precariously full!) transfer the tart to the oven, where the fruit slumps and the custard bakes into a nice creamy-but-sliceable dream. It’s incredibly simple, but it feels luxurious and just complex enough to be interesting. Some rich, tangy crème fraîche gets stirred together with brown sugar, eggs, and a bit of vanilla. And while the fruit is resting, you stir together the easiest custard ever. The fruit gets tossed with brown sugar and a bit of cornstarch and the spices and the orange zest. And they all play well with plums and with each other. The cinnamon feels like comfort to me, the ginger adds a subtle background heat, and the orange zest wakes everything up. And it has never failed me yet.įrom there, I knew I wanted something with a different flavor profile and landed on a fragrant trio of ground cinnamon, freshly grated ginger, and orange zest. It’s crisp and buttery and doesn’t require any rolling or chilling.
I was in a tart or pie sort of mood, and started with my favorite, foolproof easy shortbread tart crust. I considered making this raspberry plum crisp with walnuts and cardamom or some version of this almond anise plum torte, but neither felt quite right for the moment. And even better, plums are easy to pit and don’t require peeling, which makes them an unfussy fruit to work with. They’re tart enough to handle some sugar and versatile enough to work with a variety of spices. My favorite plums for baking are the purple oblong plums, sometimes called Italian plums or prune plums. While fresh plums can be inconsistent, sometimes bland or too mealy, baking brings out extra layers of flavor and sweetens and smooths over any imperfections in ripeness or texture. Plums feel like a bit of a sleeper in the pantheon of fruit (apart from William Carlos Williams’ famous poem about them), but they undergo an impressive transformation in the oven. It’s something I threw together after coming home from the farmers market with a pint of oblong Italian prune plums and knowing I wanted to bake with them.
This plum custard tart is just the thing for the first blush of fall.
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