PLUM NUMBER
Now is the time to bake with sweet juicy plums – and one of the most reliable varieties, for both eating and cooking purposes, is the Victoria plum, says Julia Platt Leonard
The Blue Tit, Belle de Louvain, Opal, Pershore, and of course, the Warwickshire Drooper: just some of the plums that happily grow in Britain.
Now is the time for plums whether you’ve got a taste for golden mirabelles the size of cherries, acid-greenskinned greengages or pebble-sized, inky-blue damsons.
One of the most popular and easy to find is the Victoria plum. It’s an old variety that stands up for both eating and cooking.
If you’ve got one growing in your garden, you’ll know that it’s a reliable producer of fruit (sometimes bearing so much that it breaks the branch).
It’s a lovely plum for a tart and if you’ve got ready-rolled pastry in the refrigerator, you can knock out a tart or individual tartlets in no time.
A bit of crème fraiche with a drizzle of the sugary cooking liquid and pudding is sorted.
Victoria plum and almond tartlets
Makes 4 tartlets
16 Victoria plums, roughly 475g 30g flaked almonds 55g unsalted butter 55g soft brown sugar ½ tsp almond extract sea salt squeeze of lemon juice a 320g ready-rolled shortcrust pastry sheet crème fraiche (optional)
Preheat the oven to 225°C. Slice the Victoria plums in half lengthways. Remove the pit and slice each half into about five long slivers (about ½ cm wide each). Heat a deep frying pan to medium and toast the almond slices for about a minute. Add the butter and when melted, stir in the brown sugar. Add the almond extract, a generous sprinkle of sea salt and squeeze of lemon juice. When the sugar is melted and the mixture is bubbling, add the sliced plums.
If your plums are fairly ripe, then cook the mixture for only a minute or two. Add additional cooking time if the plums aren’t very ripe. Remove from the heat, strain and set the plums aside to let them cool slightly. Place the cooking liquid back in the pan and put the pan on the heat.
Reduce the cooking liquids for several minutes until the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and set aside until ready to plate.
Place the pastry on a baking sheet. Slice into four equal rectangles. Divide the plum mixture onto the four pieces of pastry, keeping a centimetre border around each rectangle. Start with one tartlet. Fold each corner over to form a triangle, then fold each side up so it just covers a bit of the plums. Press down with the tines of the fork along the border to hold in place. Repeat with the other three tartlets.
Place the tartlets in the hot oven and bake for 5-10 minutes, until the pastry is cooked and nicely browned. Remove from the oven, top with some of the reduced cooking juices and a dollop of crème fraiche, if using.