A full body summer fruit tart made with freshly harvested juicy plums!
ingredients for 8 servings (total cost about 8€ with organic ingredients)
a portion of basic brisèe dough for tarts made with
- 125 g di farina 00
- 62 g butter
- 31 g water (or milk)
- 2 g di sale
for the plum compote
- 1,2 kg plums (not over-ripe)
- 75 g di burro
- 100 g di zucchero
- un pizzico di sale
- 25-30 blanched, slivered and toasted almonds
For a perfect upside-down fruit tart we need to use fruits high in pectin, so that it combines with the butter and sugar forming a fruit compote or gel. A fruit high in pectin that is perfect for such tarts, is the plum (not the Italian variety, which, unlike other plums, is low in pectin).
This year we harvested our first plums, from the plum tree in our little garden. We used most of them to make an excuisite plum jam, and with the rest we made this delicious upside-down plum tart.
So, to make it first of all we have to prepare a portion of a basic short crust (brisèe) dough. Once we make the dough, we let it rest in the fridge for several hours, ideally overnight.
When we are ready to prepare the tart, we remove the dough from the fridge and we roll it out to a disc of a diameter a little wider than the baking pan we intend to use and a thickness of a little less than 1 cm. We place it between two baking papers and we return it to the fridge to keep it well chilled.
Meanwhile, we prepare the plum, butter and caramel compote. To make the butter caramel, it is best (more convenient) to use directly the baking pan in which we are going to bake the tart, if, of course, it can be placed over the stove. Otherwise, we have to use a saucepan and then to transfer the caramel and apples in the baking pan, something rather troublesome, therefore not advisable.
So, we melt the butter in the pan, we add the sugar in a slow stream on top of it and we cook mixing gently, until it turns to a light golden brown color and it acquires a light odor of beurre noisette. Be careful, though, not to cook the caramel too much, or it will become bitter and unpleasant.
When the butter caramel syrup is ready, we remove the pan from the stove and we place on top the plums, already peeled, stoned and halved. To easily peel them, blanch them for a minute in boiling water. We arrange the plums in a spiral pattern, well stuffed and curved side down over the butter caramel syrup.
Then we return the pan to the stove and we cook the plums over high heat for about 6-8 minutes, so that their juices are reduced, the syrup begins to thicken, turning into caramel and the plums soften a little and are well impregnated with the syrup. We remove again the pan from the burner and we sprinkle the plums with blanched, slivered and slightly toasted almonds.
We take the chilled tart disc from the fridge and we arrange it over the apples, stuffing the borders between them and the inner edge of the baking pan. We make a whole in the center of the dough to help the steam escape during baking.
We bake the tart at the lower part of a preheated ventilated oven at 160 o C for about 30 minutes or until the tart surface becomes golden and the caramel begins to rise on the sides. Do not over cook, because we want to keep the base soft and not to turn it into biscuit.
We turn off the oven and we let the tart inside it for a few minutes, then we remove it from the oven and we turn it over a large serving dish with borders, so that they can hold the caramel. We let the pan for a few seconds over the tart, until all the caramel drips off, then we remove the pan.
We can serve the tart lukewarm or cold, alone or accompanied by a ball of ice cream, a little whipped cream, or some crème anglaise.
NOTE: See how to make your own short crust – brisèe dough qui
