SUMMER PLUM CRUMB TART
We have two beautiful plum trees in our yard which are extra productive this year. The plums were juicy yet the squirrels left them alone. Usually the squirrels get to these before we do, but this year the squirrels must've found better fruit in someone else's yard.
INGREDIENTS
2 Cups - Almond Flour
1/2 Cup - All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup - Brown Sugar
1 Cup - Chopped Pecans
1.2 Cup - Sugar
4 Tbsp - Cornstarch
1 - Egg
1 Tsp - Salt
2 Sticks - Butter (cubed)
5 Cups - Plums (pitted and skinned, if desired)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Mix the almond flour, all purpose flour, brown sugar, chipped pecans, egg, and butter until well combined. If there are chunks of butter still in the dough, that is ok as long as most of the butter has been incorporated.
2. Split the dough into thirds. Use 2/3rds of it to fill the tart or pie pan. Try to make the side and the bottom crust the same thickness. Crimp the edges down so that they are even--this will prevent burning in the oven. Chill the crust in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.
3. In a pot on the stove, cook the plums with the sugar, salt, and cornstarch. If you add your cornstarch to the plums before they're hot, it should combine with the liquid within the plums. However, for the safest route, make a slurry (mix with 4 tbsp of room temp water) before adding it to the pot.
4. Once the plums thicken to your desired consistency, remove from allow to cool for 15 minutes.
5. Remove the crust from the freezer and pour the cooled plum filling into the tart.
6. Crumble the remaining 1/3rd crust over the pie.
7. Bake the tart until the crumbs at the top are golden brown.
8. Remove and serve with some vanilla ice cream.
VIDEO
NOTES:
- When mixing the crust ingredients, consider using a pastry cutter. We do not own a pastry cutter, so had to mix it by hand. When mixing by hand, the warmth of the hands melts the butter and you'll get melted butter and chunks of larger butter in the crust. The pastry cutter will help cut and bind the ingredients and maintain a nice consistency. Most pie crusts use that pastry cutter to minimize the butter melting into the rest of the dry ingredients.
- Remove the skin of the plum if you don't like the skin in your pie for the taste or consistency. I quote like the bite, so I keep it in. Sometimes though you might have a plum or two with a bitter or sour skin.
- Adjust the sugar as needed to get your desired sweetness. I enjoy the tart with ice cream, so I don't require the tart to be very sweet. However if you like the tart on its own and want a sweeter tart, use up to 1 cup of brown sugar for the crust and up to 10 Tbsp of sugar in the filling.
- Our pies were very juicy. At one point I felt like I might have needed to add more cornstarch to the filling. If you want a thicker filling, feel free to increase the amount of cornstarch, but adding too much may make your filling taste grainy.
- If you don't have pecans, you can replace it with almond flour or another nut (like walnuts). I like the texture of the pecans in the crust, but if you prefer not to have that added texture, feel free to just stick to the almond flour.