Plum Frangipane Tart Recipe
Plum Frangipane Tart has to be one of the tastiest tarts out there ... and it looks mighty pretty too! Buttery, flaky shortcrust tart shell is filled with sweet almond frangipane filling and then topped with the most beautifully coloured plum slices.
Servings: 12 slices
Calories: 369kcal
Equipment
- Fluted Tart Pan with Removeable Base 23cm (9-inch)
Ingredients
Shortcrust dough
- 220 g plain flour (all-purpose) sifted, plus extra for dusting
- 40 g powdered icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar) sifted
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 lemon zest
- 115 g unsalted butter cut into small cubes
- 1 large egg beaten
- 15-30 ml water ice-cold
- 1 small-medium egg for egg wash
- 1 teaspoon milk for egg wash
Frangipane filling
- 115 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 1 lemon zest
- 2 large eggs
- 100 g almond meal (ground almonds)
- 65 g plain flour (all-purpose)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 6-8 fresh plums
- 1 tablespoon honey
- fresh thyme leaves
Instructions
Sweet short crust pastry
- Rub the butter into the flour. Sift the dry ingredients, flour, icing sugar and salt into a large bowl. Add the lemon zest and the cold, cubed butter into the flour and rub the butter and flour together between your fingers until it resembles a bread crumb consistency with a few pea-sized pieces of butter still visible.
- Add egg and water. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in your egg. Using a fork, mix the egg into the flour. Add 1 tablespoon (15ml) ice-cold water and use your hands to bring the dough together. Add more water sparingly if needed.
- Bring dough together and refrigerate. Tip the pastry onto a lightly floured work surface. Use floured hands to shape pastry into a ball taking care not to overwork the dough. Flatten slightly into a disc and wrap well in cling wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Roll out dough. Remove the chilled pastry from the refrigerator and transfer it to a clean, lightly floured surface. Allow pastry to sit for about 10 minutes or so to soften ever so slightly. Trying to roll pastry that is too cold will cause the edges to crack. To roll out, lightly flour your countertop and rolling pin and using firm, even strokes, roll from the centre outward, turning the pastry a quarter turn every few strokes. Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a coin (⅛” thick) and into a 12in (30cm) circle.
- Prepare dough in tart tin. Flour the base of a 9in (23cm) deep fluted tart tin and gently lift the pastry and place into the prepared tin. Use your fingers to push the pastry onto the sides of the tin and into the grooves. Using a sharp knife, trim off the excess pastry from the tin. Refrigerate the prepared pastry shell for at least 1 hour to allow the pastry to relax further and butter to harden. (My preference is to leave the shell overnight in the fridge and continue with the recipe the next day. If you do this then cover well in plastic wrap to ensure that the pastry doesn’t dry out.)
- Blind bake. Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Once the pastry is chilled, prick the pastry base all over with a fork and then line with greaseproof paper and fill with pie weights or rice (or both) all the way up the sides. Blind bake for 15 minutes, then remove the greaseproof paper and pie weights. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and milk to form your egg wash. Brush the base of the pastry with egg wash and return the pastry back to the oven and bake for a further 7-10 minutes or until the base is dry and a light golden colour. Remove from the oven and leave the tart base to cool.
Frangipane filling
- Make frangipane filling whilst the tart base is cooling. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together on medium speed for 5 minutes until pale.
- Add wet then dry ingredients. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl every so often. Add the almond meal, flour, salt, vanilla and almond extract and mix until combined. Pour the frangipane filling into the tart shell and spread out evenly.
- Slice plums and place on tart. Cut each of the plums in half and de-stone. With a sharp pairing knife, thinly slice the halves. Set to one side the two rounded 'ends' , you can eat these later.Starting from the outside and working your way in, place your plum slices, next to one another, spiralling in on top of the filling. Place the tart back in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until the filling has set and is golden brown.
To decorate
- Remove the tart from the oven and brush the plums with honey warmed in the microwave for a couple of seconds. Sprinkle with thyme leaves (optional but recommended!).
Notes
Step-by-Step Photos: My blog post includes helpful step-by-step photos to help guide you through making this recipe.
To Store: Wrap cooled Plum Tart in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 days.
To Freeze: You can freeze your Plum Frangipane Tart by baking it and letting it cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap and then foil and place in a freezer bag. Freeze for 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then allow to come to room temperature before serving.
TIPS: For making the shortcrust pastry
- Cold ingredients: Ensure that your ingredients (including your dry ingredients if you are in a hot climate) are cold before using. If you have hot hands, run them under cold water and dry them before handling the dough.
- Don’t overwork the dough: Bring the dough together with your hands and press together. Only knew a couple of times if necessary. Overworking the dough will lead to tough pastry.
- Rest time: Don’t skimp on the suggested rest times. This allows the flour to hydrate from the wet ingredients, and more importantly the butter to harden. The pastry hits the hot oven, the cold butter will melt causing steam pockets in your pastry = flakey pastry!
- Cream butter/sugar well: Creaming the sugar and butter well incorporates air and makes for a lighter frangipane.
- Use a sharp knife: This ensures neat, clean slices when cutting the plums.
- Decorate as you wish: I added the slices and layered them quite tightly together on top of the filling. This obviously takes more time to slice and lay the plums. If you wish to add fewer plums onto the top then lay them with more space or even quarter the plums and scatter them randomly on top of the filling.
Nutrition
Calories: 369kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 82mg | Sodium: 117mg | Potassium: 136mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 657IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 2mg