Thursday, October 20, 2011

Plum Crostata

Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and this week I've channelled my inner little Jack Horner and pulled out a whole lot of plums.

plums© by Haalo


When you find such perfect specimens you really don't want to do too much to them - simple is very often the best and one of the best ways, is this Plum Crostata.

Plum Crostata© by Haalo

Plum Crostata

sweet shortcrust pastry
500 grams plums, halved and stoned
caster sugar
semolina flour
crushed roasted hazelnuts


Roll out the pastry on a sheet of baking paper to form a rough circle a little larger than the cake pan you will be using - it doesn't need to be perfectly round or have even edges.

Place the paper and pastry in the cake pan and press into place - keeping the paper there will make it easier to remove the crostata once it has cooked.

Mix a spoonful of semolina with 2 spoonfuls of crushed hazelnuts and then sprinkle this over the bottle of the pastry - this will soak up the juices of the plums as they cook and stop the tart from having the dreaded "soggy bottom".

Toss the halved and stoned plums with another spoonful of crushed hazelnuts and a little caster sugar, then place them in the tart - fold the excess pastry over to partially enclose the plums.

Plum Crostata© by Haalo


Brush the pastry with milk and sprinkle with a little more caster sugar.

Bake in preheated 170°C oven until the pastry is golden and cooked through - around 40 minutes.

It's important to let the tart cool completely before removing as the plums do release a lot of juice and it needs the cooling time to allow these juices to thicken.

It's a perfect tart to serve with afternoon coffee.

3 comments

  1. Thanks for the timely post and easy-to-follow directions. I know where my pile of plums will go this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. this looks like a wonderful dish to try

    ReplyDelete

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