After an hour long deliberation with my selves (one of them is a high school debate team champion- awesome), I've decided to not stray from my month long Italian theme and instead just saaaaay that this plum galette is a classic Italian pastry. Of COURSE it is! They have plums in Italy, right? It's soooo not French at all. Even the woooord galette sounds Italian! It's where the Italian word 'gelato' comes from! *cough*
Anyway, our story begins when this beautiful princess MandiCrocker (that's me!) decided to take a break in her obsessive Blackberry game playing of 'Word Mole' and go to the grocery store. Plums were on sale... *swoon, swoon* And I thought to my beautiful princess self, "Princess self! Have you ever made anything with plums?" And my beautiful princess self sung back, "Why no, Mandi. I haven't!"
So I decided to buy a couple pounds of this gorgeous fruit and look through my William Sonoma Baking Book for something wonderfully plummy! The book was lacking in the plum department so I googled on SouthernLiving.com.
I came across a recipe for a Rustic Plum Tart. ('Tart' being the Italian pronounciation for the French word 'galette.') And oooooh, it's delicious...
And then, because I had some apples that were about to spoil, I also made an apple galette! (I got the apples from that friendly witch I found in the woods).
I had 8,000 pounds of apples so I made a rectangular Chicago-style deep dish galette. I also had some of these Kraft caramel beads I bought eight years ago that I've never used. I threw those on there, too, and some chopped walnuts.
Those little round rabbit pellets? Caramel beads.
They didn't melt very well. Hmph!
So here are the recipes! My roommate, Veronica, said the plum tart is one of her favorite things I've ever made and she's been begging me for the recipe. I thought it would be super sweet but it's actually quite tart which she loved! I think it also depends on the ripeness of the fruit. Keep in mind, the riper the fruit, the more the galette juices will leak onto the parchment paper making your tart look deliciously ugly. :)
PLUM TART INGREDIENTS
Parchment paper
Vegetable cooking spray
1 1/2 pounds plums, sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup plum preserves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 (15-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1. Line baking sheet with parchment paper; coat parchment paper with cooking spray. (I used aluminum foil).
2. Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together plums and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Let stand 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Unroll piecrust on prepared baking sheet. Roll into a 12-inch circle. (I used my 'go to' pie crust recipe).
4. Drain plum mixture, reserving liquid. Toss plums in flour.
5. Mound plums in center of piecrust, leaving a 3-inch border. Fold piecrust border up and over plums, pleating as you go, leaving an opening about 5 inches wide in center.
6. Stir together egg and 1 Tbsp. water. Brush piecrust with egg mixture, and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. sugar.
7. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden. Carefully transfer tart on parchment paper to a wire rack; cool 20 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, bring reserved plum liquid to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Boil 1 to 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Let cool slightly. Brush or drizzle 1 to 2 Tbsp. hot plum liquid over exposed fruit in center of tart. (I also sprinkled it again with brown raw sugar cause I thought it looked purty!)
**For the apple tart, I used about 1/2 cup of sugar, a tsp of cinnamon and a couple tablespoons of flour. Then I let it sit for an hour or two and baked it the same. You can check the doneness of the apple with a knife.
Anyway, summers almost over, folks!! Enjoy these juicy fruits before they're gone til next year! Soon it'll be onto pumpkin and gingerbread desserts... I AM WAY FREAKIN' EXCITED FOR FALL. :)
Plums and Princes,
Princess MandiCrocker
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