I have to admit that I was most productive today. I watched a lot of Netflix yesterday. I think it was the grey skies--they made my mood melancholy and I didn't have the desire to finish any project I started. Today, even though I woke up late, I was filled with an unusual gusto. I didn't have to fight with myself to go to yoga and even pushed myself to do more intense poses that I wouldn't get to do in a beginner's class. It was nice to feel challenged. When I left class an hour and forty minutes later, I felt sweaty, accomplished and in need of fruit. yes, fruit. I rarely crave fruit, but I found myself standing in front of a myriad of nectarines, plums and apricots in Trader Joe's, trying to picture which would be most juicy and satisfying when I bit into it. I was only going to buy one piece of fruit to have as a snack on the way home, but my eyes caught a container of black plums and the image of beautifully arranged dark crescents on a sweet tart shell popped into my head and my plan changed all together.

A quick Google search later, I had a recipe from Ina Garten in hand [thank you iPhone] and was headed home to start my tart quest. I had visions of sugarplums dancing in my head...well, almost. I had never eaten a black plum before and didn't consider that the inside wouldn't be the same sunset orange and bright yellow of the plums I had grown up eating. When I cut into the first plum, I was shocked at the jewel-like crimson color hiding beneath a Tyrian purple exterior. When fanned out in rows around the shell, the finished tart looked like a glistening chrysanthemum after an autumn rainstorm. Simply gorgeous.

I baked the tart for a smidge longer than I should have, mainly because I used a different kind of plum than Ina suggested and because the pieces were smaller, the juices didn't bubble as the recipe suggested they should have. Overall, though, the tart was just that...tart. The crust was buttery and delicious (I used almond flour instead of walnuts and it gave the crust a more interesting flavor profile while still being delicate in contrast to the puckering tart of the plums). 


Had I served this alone, I would have sprinkled sugar on top of the plums before cooking and possibly glazed the finished product with apricot jam for additional sweetness. My tart wasn't a solo dessert, luckily, as I whipped up a batch of vanilla bean ice cream to go along side of it. I had been agonizing over what kind of ice cream to make next, and couldn't come up with an idea. Then, as soon as I thought of the sour tang of the plums, I knew that plain old vanilla would be just the flavor to add sweetness and a creamy texture to balance out the nutty crust.

Plum Tart

(Adapted from Barefoot Contessa Parties! 2001. As seen on foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup almond flour

3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), diced

1 egg 

2 pounds firm, ripe black plum, pitted and sliced into thin crescents

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Combine the flour, walnuts, and sugar in a large bowl. Blend in butter with a pastry cutter or by hand. 3. Once mixture resembles coarse meal (the butter pieces should be no bigger than peas), add egg. Mix, either by hand or with an electric mixer, until crumbly.

4. Press 1 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture in an even layer into the bottom of a 9 1/2-inch springform or tart pan.
5. Arrange the plums in the pan to form a flower pattern; begin at the outside and work your way in.

6. Bake the tart for 40 to 50 minutes, or until it's lightly browned and the plum juices are bubbling. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.
7. Remove from the pan and transfer the tart to a flat plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (adapted from David Lebovitz's Philadelphia-style vanilla ice cream recipe, from A Perfect Scoop)

Ingredients

2 C heavy cream

1 C skim milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 T vanilla bean paste (or 1 vanilla bean, scraped)

Directions

1. Combine half of the heavy cream, vanilla and sugar in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring slowly until sugar is dissolved.

2. Remove from heat and add the remaining heavy cream and milk. 

3. Store in refrigerator until chilled.

4. Churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

5. Store in refrigerator to harden before serving.

6. Serve along side black plum tart.

Labels: almonds, ice cream, plum, tarts, vanilla

2 Comments:

The plum tart was delicious - not tart at all - the crust was excellent - I would like to sue it for other pie recipes....Thanks for sharing Kelly!!!

By  Marybeth, at July 6, 2011 at 7:55 AM  

Thanks, Marybeth! I'm always happy to share recipes (and baked goods!). I'll be sure to give you a shout when I bake something next so you can share in the goodies :)

By  kelly, at July 7, 2011 at 9:59 PM  

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No, seriously. Make them. You won't be sorry.

Saturday started off with such promise. I woke up early, cleaned my kitchen, put out the recycling, played with Mars and came up with a game plan for the day all before 10am. I left my little apartment feeling like I could conquer the world [or at least cross off everything on my to-do list]. I drove over to the farmer's market, parked my car in the lot behind it and set off in search of organic veggies and a stickybun. I chatted with the growers about asparagus and bought some local honey to help with my allergies. I came back with a bag full of rhubarb and a birch beer and returned to my car to find that someone had hit my parked car...twice. [As if one side wasn't enough, they had to hit the other. eesh.] 

I have to give myself credit. I'm an anxious, hyper person by nature, but I managed to stay pretty calm at first. My car was only scratched and the damage appeared to be minimal and superficial. It wasn't until I was swarmed by a group of men who kept heckling me and talking down to me that I started to get upset. I called the police to file a report, but they were taking quite a long time to arrive at the scene. Time passed and the group wouldn't leave me [or my car] alone. Eventually, I decided that it wasn't worth dealing with a giant hassle for a few scratches if it meant having to tolerate being harassed while I waited. I called to ask that the call for police be cancelled. As I got in my car to leave, just as one of the men thought it would be oh-so-charming to ask me out to lunch. Really, sir? Really?

When I got home, I felt like my whole day had been ruined. I had intended on making homemade falafel and grilling eggplant, but I had lost my appetite. My mother called and I recounted the whole ordeal to her and she was worried about me, but her questions and suggestions only stressed me out even more. I just wanted to take a nap and forget my afternoon. I forget exactly what happened, but at some point I bucked up, stopped being upset and decided to bake my feelings into something delicious. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've been trying to use up what I already have in my apartment. To give you an idea of how much I bake [and how many baking ideas I have that never come to fruition], I had pre-baked mini tart shells in my freezer, several lemons, a container of mascarpone cheese [the last time I counted I had ten kinds of cheese in my refrigerator. I may need an intervention.], and bags upon bags of berries in my freezer. Life had given me lemons, but I mellowed them out with creamy mascarpone and made them beautiful with some berries. It was a sweet ending to a sour situation.

These little tartlets can be as homemade or as store-bought as you'd like. I made my pastry crust from scratch, but you can certainly use a pre-made crust. If the thought of making lemon curd from scratch makes you weary, use store-bought. And, if you've got raspberry bushes in your yard like I do at home, use those. If not, grab some at the farmer's market or the grocery store. Though my berries were frozen, I had bought them at the farmer's market and frozen them myself. I find that the frozen berries in the freezer section are always broken and never look pretty on desserts like this. 

Lemon Mascarpone Berry Tartlets

Ingredients

1-9" pie crust [store bought or homemade]

1-8 oz container of mascarpone cheese, at room temperature**

8 oz lemon curd [store bought or homemade]**

raspberries, blackberries or strawberries to garnish

optional: seedless jam [raspberry or strawberry] to glaze 

**Note: You can make more or less of the filling, but be sure to keep an equal ratio of curd to mascarpone. If you have extra filling, it would be great in fluted glasses with berries on top or in a trifle with angel food cake or lady fingers. The possibilities are endless!

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to temperature given by manufacturer's instructions or according to the pie crust recipe. [My recipe called for 375 F]

2. Roll out pie crust. Using tartlet pans as cutters, cut circles out of the pie crust.

3. Take each circle and roll it with a rolling pin to stretch it out a bit. The goal is to get it to cover the inside of the tartlet pan and have enough dough to go up the sides as well.

4. Place each circle into a tartlet pan, pressing against the walls of pan and trimming any excess.

5. Mark the bottom of each tartlet shell with a fork to prevent the shell from puffing up during baking. Blind bake [aka line each shell with parchment paper and fill with dried beans or pie beads] for 10 minutes. Take out paper and beads and bake for another 5 minutes. Let cool.

6. In a bowl, cream mascarpone and lemon curd together until smooth. It's important that the mascarpone be at room temperature, else it has a tendency to be lumpy and uncooperative when combined with the lemon curd.

7. Add lemon curd mixture to pie shells, filling each almost to the top of the pie shell.

8. Arrange berries on top of mascarpone.

9. If you choose to glaze your tarts, thin out berry jam of your choice with water until it becomes liquidy, but still slightly viscous. The goal is to have it stay on the berries and make them shine. If you add too much water, it will run off the berries and make your tarts soggy.

10. Grab a fork and enjoy!

Labels: blackberries, lemon, mascarpone, raspberries, tarts

4 Comments:

And why exactly were these strange men harassing you? I'm sorry your day started off yucky, but at least you got some delicious noms to make up for it. I'll have to try these out on one of my cheat days... I'm currently eating a slice of mango key lime cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory... so. good.

By  LF, at June 5, 2011 at 10:57 PM  

So sorry you had such a bad day... However something good sure did come of it - these are beautiful! Great photos!!

By  Souffle Bombay (Colleen), at June 6, 2011 at 6:54 AM  

They were harassing me because they were friends of the guy that hit me, so they tried to make it seem like I was overreacting. I'm just glad it's over and that I at least got to eat a most delicious dessert [and that my lightbox took such great photos at 11:30 pm! go little lightbox, go!]

By  kelly, at June 6, 2011 at 7:01 PM  

wow, I can only imagine how good they taste, but I can totally appreciate those pictures, they are fabulous! Sorry you had to deal with a crappy situation to get you to such a tasty situation!

By  Beth @ Kitchen Minions, at June 8, 2011 at 8:27 PM  

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