I’ve had my eye on a certain little fruit that made its debut at our Sunday farmer’s market a couple of weeks ago. French plums are in season and they’re beautiful right now. I can’t get enough of their red purple skins and their firm, meaty flesh. We sampled a couple of them before splurging on the pint ($2). Jason indulged the choice because he knew I wanted them, that I wouldn’t let it go until I had them. And I’m sure he doubted that they’d get eaten before turning into compost on our kitchen counter. Fair enough.

The idea of the plum tart has been brewing for about a week. I’ve been reviewing recipes, scanning the blogs, trolling epicurious.com and flipping the pages of our dessert reference books. Here’s what I ended up with: an epicurious.com recipe for almond cream and the Martha Stewart recipe for pate sucree I found over on BigOven.com.

My plan was to bake the tart while at home alone. I wanted to prove something to myself and this tart was a sort of test of whether I’ve learned anything from all the recipes I read and all the cooking shows we see. Mind you, I’m not the baker in our family. Jason is the master of the pastry and the chemistry of the bakery is his province. I was taking some chances here.

I’m satisfied with the result and feel inspired to bake more. Get out to the market, buy the best in-season fruit you can find and make a tart.

Cheers,

Steve

French Plums