Winter Plum Tart

Hello. It's your favorite slacker blogger here.

I won't try to excuse my laziness, I will simply tempt you to forgive me with gooey, glisteny baked fruit.

Of course, to get in on some of this freshly made Winter Plum Tart, you'll have to come all the way to No. 1 Thames St, Oxford, UK (a plane ride for some, merely a bike for others). Or just make your own version, you moocher. Just kidding (I'm not so good at this groveling for forgiveness thing).

Anyway, I finally discovered the joys of the Wednesday market at Gloucester Green this morning and just couldn't resist the mound of plums on sale for £1.00 (I may also have to make an avocado tart, a green chili galette and a coriander pie to get through all the goodies I snatched up -- all for only £5.00)! Fruit like this deserves to be baked and glazed and served with fresh cream. Plus, we still have a dozen left over after this whole darn tart.

It was a relatively simple process, actually. A bit annoying with the plum-slicing, but isn't just so pretty?






For the crust, you'll need:
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest
2 cups of your favorite cookie, cereal or whatever you think might go well with butter and sugar

We were out of the ginger oat cookies I wanted to use as the base, so I went out on a limb and tried the only thing in the cupboard that might work: Multi-grain Cheerios. Well, technically the Waitrose knock-off:

Just crunch them up,

Mix in the melted butter, sugar and cinnamon and press into the bottom of your pie plate. Grate the lemon rind evenly across the crust and press in a bit for good measure.

Bake in a 350º oven for about 10 minutes to crisp it up a bit.
While it bakes, begin halving, pitting and slicing your plums. About 1/3 of an inch for each.

Toss the plums in:
3 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

 Arrange the plum slices in circles on the now-cooled crust.

Bake in a 400º oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven. They only do convection-style here in the UK, so you may need more time in a normal oven as well.

While it bakes, melt down over low heat:
1/4 cup marmalade
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice

Remove tart from oven and brush with glaze. Allow to cool on a rack and serve at room temperature with cream or ice cream or pickles for all I care! It's lovely!