Plum Galette

I don't think I've ever been a huge fan of plums. It wasn't that I hated them, I just didn't LOVE them. Maybe it was the fact that they were quite easily available since I was a kid and it didn't seem exotic enough. Now that the markets here have begun to stock seasonal produce, I've learnt to appreciate all the seasonal fruits more and of course plums were one of them.

So, as you know, I've been heading straight for anything (almost anything) on sale on the aisle of the supermarkets recently, and these plums were no exception. I bought 10 plums for less than 2 dollars and I don't think I've ever gotten such a steal. They were sweet and ripe, a little tangy around the skin and still retained a slight crunch. I can't stand mushy and over-ripened plums, or persimmons, or anything else in fact. It was such a good deal that my mother bought another 10 the very next day.

Though we enjoyed them just as they were, I wanted to try cooking with plums. Most of the recipes I recall that involved plums were dessert recipes, with an occasional salad thrown into the mix. So well, I haven't made a dessert tart for quite some time and decided on a galette, or more free form and rustic looking tart. Galettes (I think it's crostata in Italian) seem to be surfacing on food blogs often, especially during the summer. Plums are merely tossed in a little sugar and flour, and spices if you like, pastry dough can be done fairly easily and there's no need to wash any tart moulds afterwards! I love an easy dessert.

 

I kept the amount of sugar I used to a minimum, since I wanted to keep as much of the natural flavour of the plums as possible. The tarts were good warm from the oven, and even better with an indulgent scoop of rich dark chocolate sorbet, which I promise to blog about soon. For now, let's focus on the galette.

Plum Galette
(Makes 1 6-inch tart)

Pastry
250g flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon
125g cold butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
40ml ice cold water

2 plums
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbps lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp flour
Milk, for brushing
Sugar, to sprinkle

- In a large mixing bowl, put in the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest and stir to combine.
- Rub the cold butter into the flour mixture with finger tips, pinching the mixture and letting the flour fall back into the bowl, until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal.
 - Add the egg yolk and mix briefly.
- Add the ice cold water, a tablespoon at a time and incorporating the dry bits of the dough as you go. As soon as the dough is able to come together into a ball, stop adding the water. The dough might still seem crumbly but it's fine.
- Divide the dough into 3 parts, roll each piece of dough into a ball and flatten slightly.Wrap each piece of tart dough in cling wrap or plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30mins. For a 6-inch galette, you will only need one part of the dough. You can also increase the ingredients for the filling accordingly and make one large galette or 3 small ones. If not using the rest of the dough, you can freeze the rest of the dough and save for other kitchen experiments!
- Preheat oven to 180 degC.
- For the filling, halve the plums and remove the pits. Slice each halve into 1/4-inch slices.
- Place plums in a bowl and toss with sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and flour. Toss to coat well.
- Roll out one part of the chilled tart dough into an 8-inch circle, about 1/4-inch thick.
- Arrange the plum slices over the dough, leaving about 1 1/2-inch around the edge.
- Fold the edge over to encase the plum filling. Brush the edge with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake the tart in preheated oven for 20 - 25mins or until the tart crust is golden and the plums start to turn soft. Serve warm as it is or with a scoop of ice cream!