How To Make A Rustic Plum Tart With Almond And Cardamom Cream

Love spending time in the kitchen? Try this delicate-flavoured, crisp and delicious plum and cardamom galette that makes an eye-catching summer dessert.

Banana bread was so two years ago – level up your home baking skills with Georgia Bateman’s easy-to-follow plum tart (or galette if you’ve just finished binge-watching Emily In Paris and feeling a little French). Essentially a free-form pie baked on a sheet pan, it has an open-top design that previews a filling of yummy purple plums that is almost too hard to say no to. This rustic tart is best served warm or at room temperature with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, because why not? The sour-tartness of the plums means it’s not too sweet to enjoy for breakfast too, perhaps with a dollop of creme fraiche to balance your palate. The best part though, you can make it with any seasonal fruit, such as rhubarb, peaches, cherries, apricots or apples, and enjoy this tasty treat any time of the year. The pastry is buttery, flaky and very forgiving, but if you’re in a hurry, you can buy pre-made short-crust pastry, and skip to method 2 in the instructions.

Ingredients

For the galette dough:
- 30g ground almonds
- 140g white flour
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- 110g of cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp cold water

For the almond and cardamom cream:
- 100g Ground almonds
- 50g white sugar
- 40g soft butter
- 1 egg
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 1tsp cardamom, freshly ground

For the plum filling:
- 8 fresh ripe plums
- 1 beaten egg with a tbsp of water
- A handful of sliced almonds

Method:

1. To make the pastry dough, place the ground almonds, flour, salt, sugar and butter in a food processor and mix until small crumbs are obtained, without large lumps of butter. Add the yolk and water and process gently, just until the crumbs begin to crystallise into dough. Combine the dough with your hands, flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
2. Meanwhile, make the almond cream by placing all the filling ingredients in a food processor and mix until a smooth cream is obtained.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
4. Halve the plums, remove the seeds and cut into thin slices.
5. Roll out the dough on baking paper into a circle about 30 cm in diameter. If the dough softens a lot due to the heat, you can transfer it to the refrigerator to stabilise before continuing.
6. Spread the almond cream on the dough and leave a margin of about 4cm without cream.
7. Arrange the plum slices densely in circles over the cream and fold in the edges of the dough.
8. Brush the edges gently with the beaten egg with the water and press a little sliced almond over them.
9. Gently transfer to a baking sheet with the baking paper and bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until the edges of the dough are golden.
10. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.