My go-to lazy sweet thing
Fragrant, ripe plums make for a delicious galette – and you might even want to cover them with a fig leaf, writes .
Q
uark, while sounding like something from Dr Who, is a soft curd cheese similar to paneer, ricotta, fromage blanc or cottage cheese. I love its slight tang. Don’t sweat if you can’t find it – you can use any of the others mentioned above instead – although you’ll be surprised how available it is these days. Most supermarkets seem to have it.
Galettes are my go-to lazy sweet thing; it’s why I always have a store of sweet shortcrust in the freezer (always Paneton) because I know that with a bit of stone fruit and a bit of dairy I’ll have it made and out of the oven within the hour.
Make sure your plums are really lovely and ripe. Smell them before you buy them. They should be fragrant.
LITTLE PLUM AND QUARK GALETTES
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Serves: makes about eight
Ingredients
350g quark or ricotta
1 egg
1 tbsp brown sugar (or fig leaf syrup, see below) Zest of 1 lemon
About 8 small red or black plums (make sure they’re nice and ripe)
About 500g sweet shortcrust pastry, chilled
Method
Preheat the oven to about 200°C on fan bake.
In a mixing bowl, combine the quark with the egg, brown sugar, lemon zest and beat together until everything is nicely combined.
Slice up the plums into eighths, removing the stones.
Cut out rounds of sweet shortcrust (I used a 15cm diameter saucer as a guide) and place on a lined baking tray.
Dollop a generous tablespoon of the quark into the centre of each round, and pile up some sliced plum on top, leaving at least 4cm of pastry clear around the circumference.
Fold the pastry over onto itself around the edges, pinching it together at intervals – it doesn’t have to look perfect – indeed, you can get away with these looking a bit rustic.
Pop into the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes or so to let the pastry firm up, and then place in the preheated oven to bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown and cooked through.
This fig leaf syrup comes from my friend Annabel Graham, who was given the recipe by the
Carmelite nuns in Hong Kong. It sounds absolutely loopy; and I do mean the actual fig leaves.
It has a fragrant, delicate flavour not unlike toasted coconut.
Use it as a glaze for sweet tarts, with ice and soda or in a cocktail (gin, soda, fig leaf syrup and lemon is superb), over the top of good vanilla ice cream; the possibilities are many.
Give little bottles of it away as wee gifts. Every time I see a fig tree now, I get the urge to harvest the leaves.
FIG LEAF SYRUP Method
Take about 50 fig leaves and give them a brisk soak in water to get rid of any insects.
Pop them into a large pot with four litres of water and leave to simmer over a moderate heat with the lid on, for about two hours.
Strain the liquid to remove the leaves and anything else that may have accrued, and then return to the pot along with 3kg of sugar.
Bring the syrup up to a boil then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for another 45 mins to an hour, so that the syrup thickens.
Transfer to sterilised bottles while still hot, and seal.